EXERCISE 1 QUICK STUDIES
I drew a couple of quick studies of my husband lying on the sofa, using charcoal and felt pen. I worked from different angles. Drawing from behind his head and from the feet up meant I had to consider foreshortening in the perspective.
A4 SKETCHBOOK charcoal
The best most successful sketch was where I planned him out using a sphere for his head and cylinder shapes for arms and legs
A4 SKETCHBOOK charcoal
A4 SKETCHBOOK felt pen
A 10 minute study was done in Crayola blue crayon. I was quite pleased with the effect of lines made with different pressures to hint at tone and folds. I tried to hint at a 3D head with very light sphere marks. White space suggests where light was falling. Proportions need looking at – are his head and arm too small? The crayon marks were made very quickly and I think this gives a bit of life.
40cm x 29cm white paper crayon
Exercise 2 A Longer Study
Is it important to have believable facial features? Probably yes, as its human nature to find ‘wrong’ faces highly comical – and that may not be the aim of the piece! Maybe there is a place for ‘wrong’ places but maybe they should be intentionally wrong, rather than just an error with the pen?
For the longer piece on the couch (below) – I decided to go from the back of the head – to make the perspective a point of interest. Perspective (large head progressing down to small feet) did help capture the pose. Maybe the head should be even larger?
I kept the couch very light in tone – so the body wouldn’t get lost in it. I tried to be more sensitive with tone to create the creases and folds in the jeans and top. This was a little bit of an improvement to previous tonal work? I think the dark tones down the length of the jeans don’t quite work. He may look a bit like a merman?
The plane of the body may be problematic – does it look like he is hanging from the wall from his feet? How to make him look like he is lying flat? Maybe by suggesting the plane of the floor with light lines?
56cm x 40cm brown paper charcoal
Sue's Blog 