Assignment 4a Seated Figure

A seated figure on an upright chair

I've never used A1 paper before so there's some uncertainty about this piece of work.  I found it hard to source paper that wasn't too expensive and ended up buying Frisk cartridge paper at 110 gsm  from the SAA.  I'm hoping it's going to be OK although it will influence what materials I use.

My husband wasn't happy to be a nude model but thankfully he is very patient when clothed.  He sat in a chair for half an hour while I did some quick sketches in my A3 sketchbook.  I've become reluctant to use this because I can never scan a whole page and this work is no exception.

The first four sketches are using my brush pen which is pretty unforgiving and gives me no opportunity to erase (which with only a minute is essential).

1 minute sketches

1 minute sketches

I changed to my new fountain pen and got these images which I'm quite pleased with.  As Richard sat down I became aware of how involved the process of sitting is so I tried to capture it.

1 minute sketches showing the process of sitting

There are one or two of these I would like to pursue and do more detailed drawings but I'm trying to concoct a way to show the sitting process in my finished work.  Thinking cap firmly on!

I'm going to spend about five minutes on a couple of these poses to try to get a more accurate feel of the figure on the chair and how the two connect.

I'm going to stick with my fountain pen because it's working well for me.

Five minute sketch

Five minute sketch

I've been able to get a little more detail into these and consider the proportions more carefully.  I'm reasonably happy with the first one but the arms in the second one look very flat.  In fact it looks very cartoon like.  I'm missing the spontaneity of the 1 minute drawings but maybe that's inevitable.

I'm going to explore the possibilities of the "sitting process" series of sketches and see if I can somehow use them all.

I have an idea that I can present the first three of the series as ethereal background sketches with the seated figure taking the prominence the task requires.  I used A4 copy paper covered in  charcoal to draw the figures with my putty rubber.

The sitting process

Once again these were very quick 1 minute sketches just to see how it would work.  The copy paper was lovely to use because it was so smooth and the charcoal lifted easily.

I have an A2 sketchpad which is also very smooth and will be perfect for trying out my idea.

What I plan to do is replicate the charcoal and putty rubber work for the first 3 images and the fourth one I'll maybe use my conte crayons.

Playing with the idea

This is very hard to reproduce for my blog.  First, because of its size I have to photograph it (and I think scanning gives a better result) and second because it's covered in charcoal and very dark.

Does the idea work?  In part yes; I like the hint of an image that the putty rubber gives.  I used a rust coloured conte crayon over the big figure and I'm happy that it shows over the charcoal.  The figure looks three dimensional and that is the object of the exercise.

What isn't so satisfactory is the composition of the idea.  On a large sheet (A2) I've got three smallish figures that have no context.  I may have to save the idea for another time because I still like it. Unless something occurs to me over the next day or so I'll develop another sketch.

At the moment I'm thinking that I will stick with the charcoal, putty rubber, conte mix because it's quite effective but because the paper is so big and the drawing will demand detail I may have to re-evaluate.

I decided overnight that I ought to experiment with my materials a bit more.  I used an A4 sheet of copy paper and laid charcoal down trying to get a graduated effect to resemble a horizon line without it being too obvious.  I pulled out some quick chair shapes and tried ink (applied with a brush), water colour paint and wax crayon to the white marks left by the eraser.  Lastly I put some textural marks in the lower, darker part of the charcoal.

Trying things out

Out of these I like

• the graduated charcoal
• the wax crayon because of the texture
• the long marks made by the card I picked up from John Twiss (5) important because it left a sharp mark

but I prefer the original conte because it made use of the white underneath it.

That has helped me to think about where I'm going and what I'm using and this is the outcome

A1 paper
single image of seated model in an upright chair
graduated charcoal
shapes lifted with my putty rubber
white shapes touched with conte
contextual marks made with the card

I'm going to use the cross legged sketch as a basis but I'll need to bear in mind that on A1 my marks will need to be bigger and bolder, possibly gestural.

KEEP  IT  SIMPLE.

I put my plan into action on some A2 paper and as I thought everything needed beefing up a bit.  I had to lift out wider lines and use more conte.

Lifted out with putty rubber

 Because the charcoal was two tone with the top of the figure on the lighter part it seemed to lose some definition. This was because I had used the same colour as previously and hadn't made it a heavier colour to accommodate the larger size.

Using the original conte

I took a darker conte crayon and gave the top half of my drawing a bit more clarity:

...I decided it was much better so went the whole hog.

I'm fairly happy with this although I think the figure could do with a bit more grounding on the chair. No shadows makes it so much harder.

My aim was to keep it simple and I think I have.

My next challenge is to see however I'm going to support A1 on my easel.

A daunting prospect

I put my charcoal on the paper and left it much less smooth than previously because I thought it would add extra interest.  If it doesn't work I can always smooth it off.

The charcoal

My completed drawing

The light on the left is from the door.

I'm pleased I built up to using this A1 paper because it looked just huge but I remembered feeling that way about A3 the first time I used it.  In the end it felt comfortable and I managed to scale up.

Once again I had to make sure my lines were strong enough for the size of the paper but I generally followed the same process as before  The foreshortening of the right leg gave me problems throughout and still isn't wonderful. My idea and my materials performed well.  Compositionally I think there's something missing.  I put some marks in for floorboards to ground the figure and indicated the corner of the room but maybe it's not enough.  My "horizon" is very vague as well.  I've put fixative on it but if I have a flash of inspiration I may add to this.  I often find that a bit of space to think works wonders.