Exhibition Piece 1 - Drawing

My pen drawing of ‘Female Body’ (Iris Kollida)

My pencil/pen drawing of ‘Gesture Drawing Vol.3’ (Ryan Woodward)

My pencil drawing of ‘Gaze 341’ (Boris Schmitz)On the left is Boris Schmitz’s simple portrait of a woman and his style is made up of one continuous

line. In the original drawing, the lines on her face carve it out, in particular her cheek bones. This lifts the woman’s face up, which presents a dignified and composed character. Though Schmitz could have given the portraits symmetry, he chose not to and captures people in positions during every-

day life. For each portrait, there is a rawness to each person he draws. Proportions for draw-ing portraits are essential. The balance in the body that Schmitz draws more precision in the face than in the body and clothing.

I found Schimitz’s style to be more abstract and non-traditional way of creating a por-

trait. He used a singular continuous line but with skilled proportion, he creates recognisable abstract portraits. Though Schmitz has done over 300 of these portraits, I choose this specific portrait because of the face. With such worthy features and yet such a solemn expression, I found it intriguing.

Boris Schmitz, Gaze 341, 2015, Drawing, borisschmitz.tumblr.com

On the left are sketches of a broken-up mannequin model, drawn through blind continuous contour drawing and continu-ous line drawings from different angles.

I chose to draw a mannequin because I am drawn to the beauty of human body. I chose to have it broken up because, to have such a well known shape (the human body) bro-ken up in such bizarre posi-tions, creates this odd contrast that fascinates me. It opens up possibilities to new forms for the body, rather than be restrict-ed to gestural or static poses.

The drawing on the left is my replication of Iris Kollida’s ‘Female Body pen drawing. In her drawing, she characterises the body with free, flowing lines but a strong gradual tone throughout, highlighting the shadows and lights. Looking at the ‘Female Body’, lines are the essential elements of the artwork. The lines in this artwork have been used for different elements of design such as creating the shapes of the body, the movement of the body and the contrast of shadows and lights. Throughout the drawing, there is a consistency of scribble-like lines involved in all the elements of a body. Though it is a drawing of only a torso, there is a lot of shape to the torso, especially to the chest and ribs. The faint circles around the breasts add an ample shape to them, while the bold curved lines to the ribs depicts sunken

appearance on the chest.

From the shoulders to the hips, there is a graduation of tone, due to a light source hitting the chest and shadowing the lower half, under the breasts. This monochromatic tone is created with more pressure added to pen in areas of shadow. This suggests that the figure is stretching towards the light. With there being a strong contrast between the chest and the rest of the body, the chest becomes to focal point. Compared to Schmitz, who has more of an abstract style, Kollide crates the body with more fluidity and realism with her drawings.

Iris Kollide, Female Body, 2015, Drawing, Behance.net/iriskollida

On the left is my replication of Ryan Woodward’s gesture drawing, who’s style involves exaggerated proportions. I was interested in this artist because with the last two artists, there was a sense of realism, in terms of the proportions and look of the body. However with this artist, Wood-ward’s use of shading and lines amplifies the proportions to create a more sexy/ample figure. Though in the original drawing, there is not the amount of movement there would be in a drawing of a dancer, the faint curved lines in the front of the body and the back of arms show gesture and create movement. The hands were the most disproportionate from a real body, appearing bigger, and with proportion being a strong element design in Woodward’s drawing, they make up the focal point. The hands line up to the glutes, which have also been exaggerated, to make the

female figure appear well rounded. Shading in the drawing balances out the drastic propor-tions, adds roundness to the gluten, muscle definition in the calfs and muscle and bones in the back.

Though I used pencil throughout, I used a ink pen at the end to outline the figure, and to have more contrast aganist the shadowing. I found the proportions that Woodward did were challenging, only to make them dramatic but not monsterous.The original drawing was done on a A4 sized paper, however I drew mine on a A3 sized paper, specifically for me to draw the full gesture and movement of the body as best as I can.

Ryan Woodward, Gesture Drawing Vol. 3, 2004, Drawing, Ryan-woodwardart.com