This project originated from a few live model figure drawing classes, and culminated with a collage. We practiced simple live figure drawings for weeks before in order to refine our skills, drawing various models in two, ten, and twenty minute poses. This particular project began by doing “boxy” and “mapping” style figure drawings. The boxy drawing involved breaking the figure up into larger shapes…
while the mapping required that we delineate sections of the figure using a “shading with lines” technique. Both were intended to enhance our understanding of the body as a collection of shapes, and how light affects the shading of a drawing.
After we learned about the more structural side of figure drawing, we did multiple tonal drawings. We were supposed to incorporate all the different techniques we had learned into these detailed, lifelike drawings. We were told to select our favorite tonal drawing as it would be featured in our future collage.
For the collage, we were instructed to create a scene around our figure that conveyed a sense of depth. I used a small-scale scan of my favorite tonal drawing, thick black paper with ridges, pearl-colored paper, translucent white paper with a hairy material in it, string, and the marks that I made from our first assignment: the mark-making exercise. I cut up the marks I had made and glued them together on top of a circle to make a moon shape. I made another half-moon shape with the pearl and translucent paper and perched my figure drawing on top of it. I cut out some black paper for her hair, and finished it off with string dangling from the “sky” to eliminate blank space.
I’m satisfied with the way my collage turned out, but I wish I would have created a greater sense of depth. In all, I think I learned a lot about drawing and shading throughout this project.
