Thursday 23 August 2012

Poster Studies




























A 'poster study', or a quick, small-scale mass sketch is helpful to solve issues in getting the visual impression from a particular composition, scene, pose, etc. It's meant to be the broadest and simplest possible expression of what you see, but also must contain some basic information that you could use in aid of the actual work itself. 

Time taken ideally for a poster study or sketch? Depends, really on what you want to achieve. Most of these were done in various drop-in evening classes, sketching sessions, life drawing sessions, from photographs, etc etc etc. usually when working in mass is more preferable than linework. They usually stop short at the 'block-in' stage, right before attempting to correct/amend drawing and considering edges. It's quite fun doing poster studies, and a goal once set by a tutor was to attempt 50 successful poster studies in the course of a single year to force yourself to think in much broader, simpler terms in mass expression. 















Procedure was like zapping solid blocks of mass in place until the overall impression is reached at, or the entirety of the support is covered. The compromise between accuracy of drawing and the overall vision as defined by the restrictive time limit is something that has to be learnt as well- the broader the overall vision, generally the more accomplished the draftsmanship involved.


Thursday 16 August 2012

Sketches and non-paintings






















Something not paint-related... some scans of old and some new-ish sketchbook drawings, a mix of different things, just looser and more gestural work in pencils and some older pen drawings. 

















The double studies in charcoal are initial stages in the drawing meant for a painting project started a year ago... having to refine the drawing and with a greater sensitivity for draftsmanship this time round, I felt that the end result this time round will be much better than the first attempt at the painting.