Project 2
Exercise 1
Two Minute Studies
For the first part of this exercise I worked in both HB pencil and charcoal.
I was pretty nervous leading up to this task as drawing the human form is way out of my comfort zone, but I am pleasantly surprised with the result. Simply drawing quickly and drawing vague lines based on what I was seeing in front of me was a really simple but useful little technique.
My partner was sat, playing on his XBOX and I just quickly began to scribble him into my sketchbook. It’s funny what you can come up with in only 2 minutes, and with a task such as this, it’s important to work quickly and in a pretty vague manner. There’s no way I would’ve been able to achieve great detail in only 120 seconds, but I love the outcome of these preliminary drawings.
I followed the guidance of the text which advised me to work from the middle and not to use outline, which is something I have heavily relied on in the past. Simply scrawling with my pencil or charcoal and barely even glancing at the page in front of me worked really well; I just quickly dashed in the lines in the general areas as my hand followed my eye-line and this is what I got.
Ten Minute Studies
These are the two pieces that I created for the ten minute studies; taking ten minutes for each piece. I worked in charcoal for one and HB pencil for the other.
I showed my partner these and asked which he preferred and he advised me that, whilst he thought both were fab, he really liked the one on the left as he loved the appearance of the charcoal. He said that he thinks there is something dark and quite menacing about it, which drew him in.
I think both of these pieces are really successful, and I think they’re both very different from each other. You may not even know that they were created by the some person, which I really like. I feel that different aspects of my personality show through each piece. For example, with the charcoal piece I think it shows more of my outward personality – a bit chaotic, a bit mysterious, and extremely wild. I loved using the charcoal to create this piece; it’s such a fun and versatile material and it works beautifully when creating portraits and sketches such as this – and especially when you’re working speedily.
The piece on the right shows my perfection to detail, and the more relaxed, controlled side of me. I suffer from ADHD so these moments of chill are far and few between, but they’re definitely there.
I really enjoyed working with the pencil on this piece as it gives the sketch a subtler, softer appearance, which best reflects the person I was drawing. My partner is very lovely and very gentle, so charcoal doesn’t suit him, in my opinion. Before, I would never have thought that the type of material used to create a piece of art could be reflective of the subject within that piece, but I guess I knew that deep down.
I really enjoyed this task, and I’m so thrilled about that because I was worried that I would hate it. I’m so eager to see what’s next now. I understand that the pieces above are by no means perfect, but they’re far better than I even thought I would be able to achieve with such little experience in this area.
Jesy Gilkes 