painting – mitchellstanford

I studied the human figure through using charcoal and ink drawings, painting, and sketching in class. We first started with the study of the hand in pencil.

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We then did charcoal gesture drawings and progressed to practicing with Sharpie. I completed the figure in 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes and then more lengthy amounts of time. This was where I began to understand the proportions of the body more clearly as I had several attempts at drawing the live models.

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I studied NBA players to draw the human form in geometric shapes.

Soon after, the class then shifted to painting the human form. I painted a self portrait after not painting in four years.

We still practiced under a stopwatch while warming up to paint, and jumped right into painting live models.

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I had to explore the use of colors more deeply when using acrylic paint to depict the human body. It took many layers of paint and the correct shades to define features of the body and was challenging yet interesting and fun.

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We concluded our painting section of class with a two day painting of the same live model. This one was a big step in our process and I experimented the most out of the whole section.

This was the most challenging assignment we had in this medium as we had a lot of time to complete it. It is difficult to call a piece finished, and although I feel like I could work on this piece further to better it, i had to step away from it. Understanding the human form is essential not only to the fashion and product industries, but it is important to understand it in life as a whole. Studying the body but not in a biological way has been more interesting and forms a basis of understanding the way the body is constructed.

First we chose a painting we liked from our visit to the Met and drew a still life drawing.

The Course of Empire: Destruction by Thomas Cole (1833-1836) Oil on canvas

Next, I made a version using both in Photoshop.

And an iteration of my line drawing using the painting’s color palette.

And lastly one using the gradient effect.

Reflection:

After using Photoshop, I realized I could have made my line drawing more simple with less lines. Doing this would have helped me fill the entirety of my drawing in the Photoshop exercises as it was hard to fill each small white area. The first assignment was to fill my line drawing with collaging the painting of my choice was a good refresher on how to use layers and layer masks but it was troublesome at first to follow the necessary steps in order. The practice helped nail in the process necessary to fill the image’s white space to the best of my ability.

The second part of the assignment to create a color palette was new to me but taught me how to make perfect squares, make swatches, use the eyedropper tool and paint bucket tool, and shift between different Photoshop tabs a lot easier. I liked how that iteration of my drawing came out because the magic wand tool picked up interesting sections that I could make a tie dye effect with using the rich colors from the painting. Although I would have rathered more distinct lines and areas to be filled, I was pleased with the final product as it’s aesthetic made me think of myself and especially my dad, who wear tie dyes often.

Lastly, I made a version of my line drawing using collaging and the gradient effect from the color palette of the painting. I got to play with value and shading using the gradient effect which I feel is a practical tool for later projects and was relatively easy to use. This version was the most visually pleasing because the value scale was most cohesive and clean looking. By this time, I had become more comfortable using the tools and felt confident in each thing I did to complete the assignment.

Tag: painting

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