October 19, 2023
This project was meant to pull our figure drawing practice into a more dynamic concept. Using our figure drawings, we were tasked to create a space, or landscape, in which the figure would be. In order to create a sense of depth, we would take from our previous modules, such as mark making or ambiguous collaging, and use varying contrast and position for each element.
The very base of this project comes from our drawing from life lessons, in which we drew from still life set-ups, and from live nude models. We used mapping techniques as well as naturalistic approaches. Below are the drawings that came out of these sessions. I used charcoal for all of the drawings, and each one save for the mapped woman on the bottom left (charcoal pencil), I used vine charcoal because I find that the soft texture it lends itself to as well as the high contrast it has makes my studies pop.
After our figure drawings, we got ready for our collages by printing out some of our figures in various sizes. I chose to use the middle figure above. On a piece of 11″ x 17″ bristol paper, I started to create a landscape for my figure to sit in. Because of his sitting pose, I decided to place him in a bar scene, sitting at the bar, with various figures in the foreground and background to create the necessary sense of depth. Below are some process pictures, and my initial concept sketch.
I used tracing paper for a translucent “light” effect and glued that down after cutting around my figure. I used a lighter colored paper for the figures dancing in the background to mimic the sense of depth, and black paper for the bartender silhouette in the foreground. Because we were meant to use mostly monotone and greyscale values, I chose my highlight color to be the slightly dull yellow of the lights and the glass of the figure sitting at the bar. Below is my final landscape collage.
In reflection, this was definitely an interesting project and I honestly do have things I would have done differently if I thought about the assignment more in depth before starting. For one, I would stagger the elements in the composition a lot more. I would’ve moved the spotlights a little more to the right in order for the main figure’s knee to slightly be out of the light. I would have also put the stools in front of the transfer paper because they get lost behind it and you can’t fully see them anymore. I also would have printed the main figure slightly larger and edited him to have more contrast since he matches the value that the transfer paper has on top of the dark grey background. The dancing figures in the background stand out a lot too, maybe slightly too much, so I would have used a darker paper, maybe even the same grey paper I used for the stools.
Overall, I like the concept of the composition I came up with and the idea of making it using mark-making from one of our first weeks here as well as other materials. I roughly drew out the composition in my sketchbook before I started to glue anything down, but if I had more patience or time, I would have liked to work on some of the small fixes I mentioned above.