FIN 110 Unit 3 – Dale Graham

November 8th in-class work:

Figure drawings for canon of proportions, and portrait from live modeling each other

three-quarter turned figure

**JORGE**: 10 minute portrait with subject stationary

**JORGE:** 20-minute study with subject moving

SKETCHBOOK ASSIGNMENT: Seven Studies of Facial Features.

Completed Nov 9 -13 at home. See below — the drawings and the photos they came from

Nose studies Sources: top one from photo. Lower one my own nose in mirror. It seemed to me that noses are harder to render accurately in isolation from other features, compared to eyes, mouth, or ear….

ADDITIONAL HOMEWORK: We were asked to “develop” one of the classroom portraits. I used the 10-minute charcoal study of Jorge, spent another 90 minutes at home with it but found it excruciatingly difficult to create a proportionate, appropriately-shaded face from my imagination rather than having a model or a photo to work from. At any rate… attached below is the result — not very successful!

**JORGE** — hugely altered!!! Perhaps if he were Cro-Magnon….. ??!!

November 15 in-class Life Drawing: see below a selection of slow and quick gesture drawings. Each image captioned with info about media, length of pose, comments

#2 Blind Contour 5 minutes, Ink pen. More confident and detailed than the first one.

BELOW: Slow Gesture Continuous Line. 6B graphite stick. 5 minutes

**CONTINUOUS LINE SLOW GESTURE.** 6B graphite stick. 5 minutes. I took the suggestion of fellow student Francis to use loops rather than back-and-forth movements as my continuous line – very useful!

**Slow Gesture** with ink (stick dipped in ink). 5 minutes. Left arm MIA! Right hand holding juggling pin, not elongated drumstick!!

**Quick Gesture** in charcoal. 3 poses, 2 minutes each, connected on page

**Quick Gesture** 1 minute in charcoal – this was first attempt.

**Quick Gesture** in charcoal. 1 minute. This was third attempt — getting better. Right foot not quite grounded!

**Quick Gesture** in charcoal 1 minute. This was fifth pose — more confident and better line weight (Figure is supine with a loop of rope connecting feet and hands)

**20 minute study seated model**. Charcoal and white chalk on brown paper

ARTIST RESEARCH UNIT 3: David Bailin

I submitted the pdf through Brightspace Assignments on November 22. Also linking here in case more convenient to have all in one place….

David-Bailin.-Unit-3-Artist-Research.FINAL_Download

November 22 In Class Life Drawings: See below, captions have some added information about each

This was 4th or 5th in a series of 1-minute quick gesture drawings in charcoal

2-minute quick gesture in charcoal – this was number 2 of 3

2-minute quick gesture drawing in ink (applied with stick).

2 minute quick gesture drawing in ink. The previous one captures more movement I think — but I found the energy line from belly button up through upraised arm also interesting in this one.

simplified value study in charcoal — 15 minutes.

Mixed media – charcoal, graphite 9B stick, ink applied with stick. This is 24 by 36 instead of 18 by 24 (all the rest) and I hadn’t tackled this size before. I was seated at a bench rather than standing at easel – and the combination of large format and my working position perhaps contributed to completely wonky proportions — tiny head, super-wide shoulders, overly-long torso, and never could capture left leg bent tight at knee and left foot resting against inner right thigh. Lessons for next time –stand rather than sit for larger format?

Tonal study — charcoal – toned paper to mid-value. 30 minutes. I included a confusing shadow across lower back (diagonally down to right from mid-back bra-line) which came from a horizontal bar out of sight, behind the model. Given no context for the shadow, the drawing would make more sense if I omitted the shadow.

Hands and Feet: Sketchbook Assignment. See below, the exercises from online videos by Leonardo Pereznieto on drawing hands and feet, and additional drawings from life or photos.

Foot study Nov 29. from photo. 2B woodless graphite

Foot Study Nov 30. from photo. 9B graphite stick

SELF-DIRECTED PORTFOLIO DRAWING: Brainstorming.

Idea 1: Vision lost and gained. This started conceptually — wrote down ideas about vision loss (thinking of my Mom currently living with progressive Macular Degeneration, inspired by artist research on David Bailin who addressed his father’s memory loss in his drawings). Also about vision gained (thinking of me, working to learn a new WAY of seeing, to help me draw). See below, written notes and couple of thumbnails.

Idea 2: Paper View. The thumbnail I drew for idea 1 got me imagining what the paper was seeing as I leaned over it to draw. Here are a couple of sketchbook pages with penciled thumbnails and a few written notes on this idea:

COMPOSITION TRIALS FOR IDEA 2: Landscape versus portrait: hands-down I prefer portrait because it positions the pencil at the apex of the drawing. I’d like the attention of the person in the picture, and the attention of those looking at the work. to be drawn to that point of contact pencil with paper. And I’d like the expression to be one of rapt attention. The idea is that the person is servant to the hand and pencil — in the landscape version, the person and the hand with pencil seem more like equals. Comic versus serene/attentive: the comic one doesn’t resonate with my motivation for the work. I wanted to try it because I found David Bailin’s use of humour really effective, but maybe next time or for a different idea…

IDEA 3: Out Of Paper. I have a lot of origami, geometric shapes mostly, around my office. I’m attracted to the idea of drawing them, trying to capture their 3-D complicated selves, with all their interior space trapped inside the paper I folded them from. SO I just started drawing ideas – tried completed shapes, then shapes in the process of being folded, then started a very technical version then an impressionistic version — but really stumbled on the limits of my patience and my technique to enact these exactly geometric figures with all the perspective issues. Something to return to when I have more time / patience / skills??

NEXT STEPS — I am most interested in Idea 2. Consult with Linda on Nov 22: not sure how to deal with mirror images, which is what I need to draw from if using my face and my hand as the model. The right/left-handed thing is tricky. And I’m not sure how to capture consistent lighting. Photograph like the one below could be a lighting aide —

Useful as a light/shadow guide? BUT I don’t want to draw from photograph…

FURTHER NOTES: November 26. Discussed with Linda in class Nov 22. Okay to use mirror for self-portrait and to use photos to capture consistent lighting of hand/face. Considerations from her — what proportion of drawing is negative space? How treat the negative space?

See Below: two larger-format trials: one in graphite (9B stick on paper toned with 6B dust) and one on paper toned with compressed charcoal, initial marks by willow charcoal to get proportions right, and starting to add some darker marks with compressed charcoal. See notes on composition with each.

**GRAPHITE 18 x 24 trial**: I find the toned background distracting with graphite, so would certainly need more work to even out / make interesting. The hair is not drawn in (which will enlarge the positive space) but even so there is significantly more negative space than in the next trial, and the hand and face seem less engaged in the composition when they are more remote like this….

**CHARCOAL 20 x 26 trial**: zooms in tighter on hand, face partly obscured, and has smaller negative space — have started to treat the negative space differently in different parts of the composition (darkest at lower edge, and the idea is to grow lighter as move up to where the pencil touches the paper). I like the way the hand and pencil are really foregrounded (is that a word) and that the face fills more of the frame. Overall, prefer this composition.

DOCUMENTING PROGRESS — Nov 26 through Dec 6th: see below

**Nov 29. Adding dark values, not much erasing yet**

**Dec 2 Reoriented pencil so its point lands higher, above the head. Erasing more.**

**Dec 3 Elaborating the eyes . Needed to look at the photo I took, hours after I took it, to notice that the subject is cross-eyed! Really not liking the hair and not sure what to do…**

Dec 4 Looked some on-line videos for ideas on hair — SO HELPFUL! So here I have created more depth and the hair looks more realistic — however the degree of detail looks goofy with the fuzzier hand…

**Dec 5: I asked 2 reviewers for comments on yesterday’s image. One thought I looked angry, one found the pencil** was lost in the hair. I took the plunged and rolled kneadable eraser all over my hard-won hair details, and over much of the face, to lighten the overall values and the emotional cast. Also narrowed the lower half of face

**FINAL December 6**. **title of work: “RAPT”**

NOTES ON FINAL IMAGE (prior to in-class critique): So much different with the green tape removed from the edges!! This was taken in natural light instead of my LED-lit office space. I like it better. Facial features — i think eyes and mouth are a little too small. The eyes are distorted somewhat (made smaller) by the glasses but should still have taken more space on the page, I think. Will be interesting to see what emotional tone people feel from the work…