Classical Interior

This is a charcoal willow study of Mr Lister statue which is situated at the front entrance of  Lister Park.The artist wanted to give the statue a more defined form by using various techniques in order to bring out the little details that show off the classical interiors. 

At the start of the process the artist started off by creating a number of thumbnails to gain the correct composition.Once the artist had a composition that pleased their eyes they began to put down all of the gesture lines to see how the statue formed of the paper.There are elements that worked wonders & the elements that need improving to make the life sketch better. 

The statue has a strong sense of three point perspective which has been contributed by a number of elements. You can also see the horizon line this sketch which originated from the bottom of the middle pillar as they go out towards the vanishing points.But the sketch as a whole needs more balance in terms of highlights to bring the statue alive in key ares.

 For an example the statue figures at the top of the statue have been faded away due to the artist getting carried away with the weight of their chosen median as they included the shadows on the statues.Over all the sketch has been a success overall. The rule of thirds has been used to the artist's advantage as it allowed them to create the three point perspective to bring the statue alive. Each section of the drawing fell perfectly into section of the golden ratio. 

However the artist may have been better if he left the trees out of the background as they look rushed & messy. So the artist may have been better off if they left the background empty as it draws attention from the statue . 

Reflective Surfaces.

The artist wanted to look for an object that possessed a reflective surface . But as you can see the sketch is rather unfavourable amongst the rest of the artist's work of art. This is down to two major issues, the first being the placement of the table on the paper which seems to have been out of proportion in relation to reality. 

The second major issue is the perspective of the bottles which may appear to be sliding off of the the table. This is a result of the artist not taking their time to think about the perspective of the glass bottle in correlation to the table. This is the reason why the sketch appears to be rather unorthodox. However the artist did try their best to recover the reflective sketch by including cast shadows of the bottles onto the table. But this was unsuccessful as the chosen median was a permanent marker which could not be altered in any way due to the weight of the line marked on the paper. 

There is an unbalanced contrast on the surface which may lead the viewer's eye all over the place. The artist will take all of the elements that needs to be improved on this life drawing & reflect on those issues when they tackle the next life drawing.

Non Human Anatomy .

As you can witness the main subjects were taxidermy animals at a museum in leeds. There were many varieties of animals to choose for a focus point for a figure drawing. As you can see the Panda has been recreated inch by inch . The artist felt that he did not do the panda any justice as he ran out of time & energy by the time he reached the creature. The main positive aspect for the artist regarding the sketch of the panda is the face which appears to be similar to the same technique animators use to figure out the position for a character's movements , expressions changing etc.

Moving onto the sketch of the salmon skeleton which was admired by the artist himself as he became immersed with the drawing that he just let himself go of his thinking process & went with the flow. There are many elements of the sketch that went right but the main element that stood out to the artist as he finished the drawing was the proportions of each & every scale . Most of the time the artist tried to ignore the measuring technique as that made him tend to overthink. This would result in a horrible outcome but when he just lets his mind relax this is what he can achieve.  

Then the artist moved onto his next subject which was the seal which appeared to have a disgruntled expression on it's face. The artist guessed the reason was due to the fact that the seal saw the person who killed it seconds before it passed on. The artist tried his very best to use the median's gradient to give the seal a sense of tone. The artist felt that he was successful in achieving this target as the seal appears to have come alive in the sketch.

The last sketch was perhaps one of the most interesting sketches as it resembled a cartoon tiger as appeased to a real life tiger. This may be due to lack of shading / highlights & again this may be down to lack of time management on the artist's part. But the artist did manage to recreate the posture & pose as the viewed it in the museum. The best part in particular is the face area which looks as if the artists deliberatly made it on purpose. The reason that the sketch seemed incomplete is due to the fact that there was a direct light source above which made it difficult to abstract the areas which needed to be shaded from the areas which needed more illumination.

Overall the artist is happy with all of is sketches as they all possessed a certain quality that made them appealing to his eyes. The artist hopes that you feel the same way.

Arrangement & Composition.

The artist is about to share with you one of his favourite sketches which is a portrait of his pet pheasant in it's bird cage. The artist wanted to demonstrate their understanding of arrangement & Composition. As we analyse the sketch we can see that the artist has tried their best to separate the background from the middle ground as well as the foreground. Now the artist will take us through some of the elements that enabled them to create this work of art.

As the artist observes the sketch that the first thought that goes through their mind is the fact that there is definitely a sense of implied line. For the artist the first object that they appear to notice is the outline shape of the pheasant. Then the drapery which accidentally emerges with the pheasant & this is down to the fact that the artists did give more importance to the pheasants presence within the composition. The sketch itself has a definite sense of the rule of third throughout , for an example one frame located in the middle possesses the head of the peasant along with the cage in the background.

To complete the sketch the artist decided that it was best to add a negative space in the background. This way the viewer's eye is encouraged to draw it's attention to wards the cage gradually drawing closer to the foreground which is the drapery. The smaller items within the bird cage could be improved to match reality. But the artist may have deliberately paid less attention on these particular items as the artist may have wanted the audience to appreciate the arrangement as a whole & not create a dominant object . 

Here is another example of a life drawing   which possess both form, tonal values & clear self casted shadows. All of these elements contribute to the three dimensional form of the Burja Khalifa replace in the glass bowl. 

The artist is most proud of this sketch as it appeared the self castes shadows contributed to the three dimensional form of the Burja Khalifa's stayed in the glass bowl . 

Shape & Form

The artist wanted to focus on the idea of translating three dimensional objects onto two dimensional planes. The way that the artist could apply his understanding of still life drawing was to put it into practical. This is why the artist decided to pick two subjects from his house to sketch in order to improve his observational skills.

The positive aspects of the sketch is the three dimensional form of the two stools which have been defined by the self created shadows. However from the artist's observations the top stools' middle leg appear to be foreshortened inaccurately.The reason behind this observation was the fact that the width of the lower leg appears to be wider than the top leg. 

However the artist believed that they have manage to rescue the drawing by emphasising on the weight of the medium as they incorporated the shadows on the front two stool legs.The two legs behind which have been highlighted a lighter gradient to show a sense of light source.These elements are two of the contributing factors that give the drawing life. 

There is a sense of implied life starting from the top left corner of the top stool leading to the middle leg of the top stool to the top side of the top stool. The next part of the journey for the artist is to the lower right leg which eventually leas to the lower left leg.Overall the artists felt that this sketch was successful.

Emotion in Posture & Pose.

The artist wanted to find a subject that displayed a certain emotion in posture & pose . So they found someone at their house was relaxing on the sofa. They used a graphite stick as they believed that they could achieve a better three dimensional form of the person who was lying on the sofa. There are many positive, negative aspects of the life drawing to discuss in depth. 

The first aspect that the artist wants to take us through is the muscular anatomy of the person who has been well defined with the use of the clothing  & direct lighting. which gave the person a self-shadowed appearance. The artist made sure that he obtain the correct proportions in order to obtain the correct shape of the person. The other reason was to make sure that the person does not seem deformed in any way.

The biggest negative aspect of this sketch is the fact that the sofa was left unshaded . The one aspect that the artist could have done to reduce this figure drawing was to perhaps finish shading the sofa . The reason that the artist did not do this was down to the fact that they ran out of time & did not get to the stage where they could incorporate some cast shadows as well as the highlights in key areas. But other than that the artist is happy that they managed to capture the emotion that the person displayed.

Panning a Drawing : More Perspective.

The artist wanted to start his first topic which is planning a drawing , more perspective by giving a brief introduction to still life by giving an overview. The artist began by stating that still life drawing has been around for many centuries as it is the pinnacle point for every renewed artists to broaden our minds. It has been argued that still life drawing originate in sometime in the 16th / 17th century. The artist felt that the reason for this outcome was due to the resources available at the time & the demand for the same medium that created such master pieces .

From artist's interpretation of the third week's task  discovered that he could truly capture the very essence of inanimate objects using a number of arrangements. The artist knew that he had to arrange something that would be appealing to the public eye. Ali's sketch was a success due to the well balanced composition which proved to be quite appealing due to a number of factors. One of the factors that stood out was the Self casted shadows formed by the drapery, the highlights within the objects on the table, etc .

 The artist wishes to start the discussion by talking about forms in still life drawing. The reason behind this was to enable an artist to capture the true essence of a person or a real place using his eyes rather than his imagination . A successful example of a still life drawing would be the Mona Lisa as it is a famous still life drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Throughout the artist's journey he discovered that the key element that all artists try to put across through their works of art is the significance. An artist tries their best to create significance in key areas which are known as focal Areas. For example when we observe the artist's graphite stick study of the table with a jug full of leaves , a pumpkin , two apples.

Everyone may have different focal points as they are influenced by another unknown factor called the implied lines.  For the artist the implied line starts from the jug to the pumpkin , then the small apple , to the apple at the end of the table to the drapery . 

In terms of composition the artist would compare his work to the Mona Lisa as they believe that they have managed to create a well composed work of art using the same basic principles .With more practise he could get to the same stage as the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci  .