Part 4 Project 6 Research point 1

Research point 1

In this piece of work I'm going to take a look at how a variety of artists depict the face in different ways.  My starting point is two artists I know who work locally.  The first one is Pat Carrington who drew this portrait in pencil.

London Tramp by Pat Carrington - 2014

This man was photographed by the artists' son on a London street.  The fee was two cigarettes. The drawing was exhibited at Retford Art Society in Autumn 2014 and sold on the opening night.

It is finely detailed and the range of tone is what gives it its power.  It was fabulous.

Quite different is the work of Stephen Pursey.  I took these photographs at his  exhibition at the Gallery at St Martins, Lincoln last October:

Stephen Pursey - self portrait 2014

Estonia by Stephen Pursey - 2014

Pursey's work is in acrylic and has a sort of pop art feel with the tones meeting together harshly. This has less emotional impact and  I think  this is to do with the style.  It lacks the pathos we encounter in Carrington's work.

I can see all the elements I've been trying out; just represented differently.

My course notes suggest that I look at the work of Graham Little and Elizabeth Peyton.

Graham Little (b1972)

Graham Little creates portraits which are detailed and meticulous and take a long time to complete. This image is wistful and tender - it could almost be a photograph.

Untitled (Yellow mirror) 2014 (2)

This image, Tapestry Lady (2010) is executed in coloured pencil.  There is a softness to the fabric which is really textural and appealing.  The background is intriguing without being dominant.  The tones are very similar to the models' hair.

Tapestry Lady by Graham Little (2010)
Coloured pencil (2)

Little's figures often resemble fashion plates.  Foxglove Lady (2011) is an example.

Foxglove Ladt by Graham Little (2011)
Coloured pencil and gouache on paper (2)

Elizabeth Peyton (b1965)

Peyton came to prominence in the 1990's with her portrayals of friends.  Most were interpretations of photographs and painted in a highly stylised way.  These portraits of Liam Gallagher and John Lennon, show very youthful men, quite androgynous, but full of character and appeal.

Liam  by Elizabeth Peyton (1996)
Ink wash and pencil (3)

John by Elisabeth Peyton (1997)
Watercolour on paper (3)

Both of these portraits are painted from unusual and interesting angles.

Earlier I commented that I found London Tramp emotive and that has led me to think about other artists whose work affects me in the same way (and fits the critiera for this Research point).

I find Frida Kahlo 's self portraits very moving - they depict the same suffering that I see in London Tramp but in a style quite different:

Self portrait by Frida Kahlo (1941) (4)

Kahlo suffered a lifetime of physical ill health after childhood polio and a serious bus accident.  She was in constant pain that contributed to depression. This is graphically shown in her many narcissistic self portraits.  Almost all of Kahlo's work is about herself.

Self portrait with the portrait of Dr Farill (4)

The Broken Column by Frida Kahlo - 1944 (5)

The Broken Column shows Kahlo at her most vulnerable.  Her disintegrating body is held together with metal supports.

Most artists seem to draw or paint themselves from time to time.  Some like Picasso document the aging process through self portraiture.


(1) http://carringtonart.net/?page_id=28

(2) http://www.alisonjacquesgallery.com/artists/26/works/

(3)http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php? criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A8042&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1

(4) http://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/Self-Portrait-1941.html

(5)http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/frida-kahlo/frida-kahlo-room-guide/frida-kahlo-room-guide-room-11

Part 4 Project 6 Ex 2 My own face

My own face

I know that I've drawn the component parts of my face but somehow putting them together seems much more daunting.  I began by doing some quick sketches as I looked through a mirror.  I had given little thought to how difficult it would be just to recreate the pose as I looked down onto my paper then back to the mirror.  (I later read in the June edition of Artists and Illustrators that I should not move my head just my eyes and work to the side of the mirror.  Too late though)

Charcoal - 5 minutes each

Five minutes only gave me the opportunity to get down the essentials and no real room to correct my mistakes.  I don't really have a broken nose!  I found that I consistently get the features too far apart then end up with a head that is too long and thin.  The top image here is the better one from the face shape point of view.

Pencil - 5 minutes - looking down

In this pose I had my head tilted backwards and this changed the proportions significantly.  The nose appeared to shorten, the top lip was more obvious and the mouth turned down.  Scary image and again little time to do anything about the wonky nose.

The notion that I might look this grim is quite worrying.

Pencil - 15 minutes

I decided to take a little more time and I liked the way I could play with less pressure.  There are lines here that are too dark and I think the planes of the face need some definition but I can see my way to something that passes some resemblance to me here.

I have been wondering if water soluble pencils might work for the tone of my faces so I had a try with them.  I've only used them once or twice and not really liked them.  I have four, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B and I experimented with them all.

I tried various quantities of water and both straight and stippling strokes with my brush.  I found that stippling gave a good opportunity to  move the graphite to where I wanted it.

Water soluble pencils

I only tried in my sketchbook but I expect the texture of the paper makes a huge difference to the success of these pencils. I think I'll try a sketchbook portrait in this medium and see how it goes. I'll experiment further if I decide to change my carrier in the future.

Working with new materials in my sketchbook gives me time to consolidate what I've learned about my water soluble pencils although I used  my ordinary pencils as well.  The water soluble was quite hard to control enough but generally speaking I'm happy with what I did and I will use them again.  I thought I'd be able to lift out highlights like with water colour but that wasn't so and  I had to use my putty rubber but even so I found it hard to get the highlights I wanted.  I also tried white pastel and chalk but they just looked grey.  Maybe the trick is to use the colour of the page and not introduce graphite to it.

Self portrait in water soluble pencil and graphite

This is recognisably me but with a year of two shaved off.  My chin line isn't as well defined as I have shown I'm afraid.

I'm finding it easier to get the right proportions and these are fairly accurate - I'm sure it's down to practise.

Alongside this work I've been looking at self portraits of famous artists and I've noticed that most of them work from a similar pose to the one I adopted above.  I think this gives a softer, less intense perspective than a full frontal view.     However, there are only so many angles a portrait can be drawn from so I'll have to be inventive.

Self portrait in charcoal

This is the best likeness I've managed.  The ultimate test was asking my four year old grand daughter who the picture was of and she said "Grandma".

I struggled with the new proportions created by the change of position; the ear started off way too small.  The eye is hardly visible (though not closed as it appears) yet it has a definite presence.  There are lots of shadows and I'm quite pleased with this, humps, hollows and all!  People have recognised who the last two drawings are.

Throughout this exercise I've concentrated on monochrome drawings and found my confidence increasing with regard to tone.  There's still a long way to go before I'm where I'd like to be.  I think my best results were with charcoal - it's very easy to manipulate and very forgiving.  I find that I'm not so afraid of the "darks" if I know I can get rid of anything too intense.

I had practised the facial features quite extensively including my own and I think this helped with the self portraits - I had already made myself familar with my own face.  Initially the proportions gave me problems as I combined the features into a whole but the final two somehow dropped into place.

I want to experiment with different materials but there's a risk factor that I have to overcome first.

I've pretty well finished Exercise 2 now but there's one additional drawing I've done.

I have wanted to use ink to draw with but not really got on very well with dip pens.  I bought a cheap fountain pen with a similar result.  Yesterday I got two Lamy Safari pens (fine and medium nibs) and had a practise to see what I could manage.  The ink that came with the pens is blue and my black cartridges haven't arrived yet.  I guess anyone can have a blue period.

My new Lamy pens

Then I used my new pen (fine nib) to draw my face.  I propped up the mirror and didn't take my eyes off it whilst I drew.  I've had fun like this before so I knew I would get a surprise and in a strange way I can absolve myself of responsibility.

Fountain pen without looking

Another one with problems with the ears but I'm amazed that's all.


I've improved an awful lot with practise - I never thought I'd do a self portrait that bore any resemblance to me.

Part 4 Project 6 Ex 1 The face

The face

Eyes

In this work I'm going to practice the components of the face.  I need to understand how the structures of the face work as individual parts and together.

Some time ago I bought Drawing Facial Features with Gary Faigin from Craftsy and I've based my drawings around this.

My first drawings are of the eye.  I used smooth paper and covered it with charcoal then used charcoal and a putty rubber to create tone.  And yes, I know my drawings look rather like a duck!

This is more of a diagram than a drawing but it has enabled me to think of the eye in its bony socket and try to get a curve to the lids.

The first three eyes here are of young women and the fourth is an older woman.  Once again they are in charcoal.

I wanted to try using graphite:

The bottom image is the eyelid of a newborn baby.  It looks formless and fairly flat.

Mens' eyes

As I have soon to draw my own face I thought I should have a sneaky go:

My eyes

I am very fair and there is little sign of either eyelashes or eyebrows unless I wear make up.

This drawing is slightly awry because my left eye should be a bit bigger.

Noses

I have found drawing noses quite tricky.  Although they improved the more I did they started to look fairly ridiculous.  I put some surrounding features in to try to give myself some landmarks.

First I looked at the structure and how it changes throughout the length of the nose.  I used a mixture of pencil and charcoal.

Using Gary Faigen again

I have learned that men and women have slightly different noses.  Men tend to have larger nostrils and more bumps on the profile of the nose.  The noses of children develop as they grow but one thing I have become aware of is that noses continue to change throughout life and can become a very dominant feature in old age.

Using photo reference

My family have very distinctive noses and as a young woman I was very self conscious of it (still am if I'm honest).  I decided to bite the bullet and have a try on a charcoal background.

This is me in charcoal and chalk

These are a bit better than the early noses I drew but my tonal work needs improving.

The mouth

Once again I followed my Gary Faigin course.  On this course he always works in charcoal so that's what I've done in the first instance for each feature.

The lips in repose

The smile (charcoal)
Looking downwards on the mouth (pencil)

My mouth

As previously I got better with practise.

Eyebrows

Eyebrows vary enormously and are bushier in men and as we age.  They run across the top of the eye socket and can be very expressive as they move with the muscles of the face.  My own eyebrows are very fair and hardly visible.  Frida Kahlo had famously prominent eyebrows meeting in the middle of her nose.

Ears

Ears are like fingerprints - no two are the same.  I found these hard to draw.

Ears

Hair

I think that a portrait could be perfect but ill drawn hair could make it a completely failure.  In my attempts at drawing hair I have taken the line that tone is the key to getting texture.  I have drawn hair going in the way it grows or is styled.

I think I might be ready to draw a whole face now.

I didn't want to offend anyone by drawing an unflattering portrait so I used a website called Portraits for Drawing (2).  Just as well really because this qualifies for the worst piece of work I've ever done! It's as though I made great effort to disregard everything I've learned about proportion.  Best consigned to the bin but things can only get better.  It's done in pencil in my A4 sketchbook in pencil.

I thought I'd better have another try and this time I went back to charcoal and it's better.  I used a little white chalk and dark graphite in the hair.

This time I took the precaution of making some guide marks before I launched into the drawing and it certainly helped.  With some trepidation I followed the manual advice and began with the features rather than an oval face and found it much easier than I had anticipated.

I find it more possible to get tones with charcoal

(1) http://www.craftsy.com/

(2) http://portraitsfordrawing.tumblr.com/

Part 4 Project 5 Ex 2 Groups of people

Groups of people

For this exercise I need to watch people and how they interact in different situations then I need to do some sketches to capture the moment.  

I'm still in plaster so a bit limited to what I can comfortably access.  I'm also a bit wary (and embarrassed)  about sketching people when they are unaware of what I'm doing.  I went to a large shopping centre and sat on a bench and tried to be unobtrusive.  

I found that no one and nothing held still for long so my sketch was a composition of various people who were never actually together as a group.  Calling them a group is not really accurate because they were either alone or in pairs and having little by way of dialogue.

I have scanned the sketch I made and this has cropped the image and I think it has made it more interesting.  This is because the woman on the right is walking out of the picture.  Out of the picture is a woman with a buggy and the friend of the young man on the left.  To get the atmosphere of the busy shopping centre I really needed to have the people closer together but still individuals.

I used a chunky graphite stick (6B) in my A3 sketchbook.

The next group took my eye because the people were all very separate but all engaged in the same thing - waiting patiently at the bread counter in a local shop. There is an expectancy that I'm happy to have captured.  As I type I can smell the fresh bread.  I worked the sketch from a photo because there was nowhere for me to sit.  I think it works better than the shopping centre sketch because I have people closer together; one behind the other.  I used the same materials as last time.  This took just a few minutes.

It is noticeable that I choose subjects looking away from me so I tried to change this by sketching this little group who were highly interactive.  The little boy was the focus of attention and no one seemed to see me drawing although I was very quick.

This is almost completely dependent on the attitude and expressions of the adults and because my rendering of faces is very weak I don't think I will be pursuing this right now.  However, in the future it has possibilities.

This sketch got pretty smudgy and messy because my hand was all over the place and I didn't protect the page but it gets the essence of what was happening.

Now I need to take one of my sketches and use it as an aide memoire to create a more finished image which includes colour.  I need to develop some atmosphere as well and show the movement of the people  It is like developing the sketches of Treswell Wood that I did way back in the winter; just different subject matter.

I chose the people in the bakers shop to make a more detailed drawing.  The challenge of creating movement combined with perspective was more than I could resist (only joking).  I wanted to make a picture that told a story.  I used my smooth water colour paper, pencils and pastel crayons.

In order to get the whole picture I've had to photograph rather than scan.  The colours don't look good I'm afraid. but it does indicate what I drew.

The baker's shop (photo)

I scanned as well but of course didn't get all the image.

The baker's shop (scanned)

In the past I've been told I overwork things so at the moment I've put the image on hold for a day or two to live with it then I'll see what I think.

Part 4 Project 5 Ex 1 Single moving figure

Single moving figure

I spent some time watching my grandchildren as they played at the weekend.  They are at an age where they never stop and go from activity to activity at the speed of light.  A real test.

I tried to draw whilst looking at them and not the paper and that accounts for some of the weird and wonderful images.

These little sketches took no more than 10 seconds and I find it thrilling that so much can be captured in such a short time.

I particularly like the drawing of Max dancing - it has the energy that is his trade mark.  The two different positions on the bike worked better than I thought although the bikes are a bit suspect. There is weight on the arms in the lower image.

The see saw drawings are my favourites on this page because I have captured the motion of it.

It seems as though lines on the diagonal work for me - Lucy's leg as she swung it out for instance.

I sat in the car in the supermarkey car park and watched the shoppers as they walked into the shop. Most people were alone and in the position I was parked I usually got a back view.  These quick sketches are forcibly cropped as I scanned them rather than photographed as previously.

I found that it was best if I could find a certain something about the person.  For instance the hairstyle often depicts the sex or the way the arm is held (lower right pic 3) shows an arrogance I picked up.


I enjoyed doing this exercise - it's a good one for creating confidence.

Part 4 Project 5 Intro

The moving figure

There are lots of hints and tips in the course manual about the best way to tackle this section - none of them allay my fears about being able to capture movement!  I've looked at how artists depict movement in a previous post but then it seemed a long way off.  The course notes give me the work of Richard Hambleton to compare with that of David Haines.  Both show dynamic movement but in completely different ways.

Richard Hambleton  b1954

Hambleton's has been called the "godfather of street art"(1)  and his early work is considered by some to be graffiti.  The life size, black shadow figures were splashed and painted on buildings and it certainly looks like they were done quickly. I find them full of life but some of them are sinister and oppressive.  

Shadowman, Richard Hambleton (1982) (2)

This one is more fun  but somehow I'd rather avoid these men:

Double Jumpers, Richard Hambleton (1999)
Acrylic on canvas (3)

David Haines b1969

Haines makes images of movement in a completely different way.  His drawings are meticulous in detail and execution but no less worrying.  He gets his inspiration from the internet and the world around him.  It must be a scary place because the images he portrays are often shocking and violent in the extreme

???  by David Haines (4)

New Balance Sneakers vs KFC Bucket - David Haines (4)

The pencil work is amazing.  There is a surreal quality to it; it's in your face just as much as Hambleton's work but relies much more on the narrative and suggestion.  There is a lot to learn about stance from these images.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hambleton

(2)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hambleton

(3) http://www.woodwardgallery.net/hamb-doublejumpers.html

(4) http:// www.upstreamgallery.nl