Human Head Construction

 23/01/21 - Week 16

This week I have produced a drawing of a skull. I think I am pretty happy with this piece since I think it is rather accurate. I mostly produced this accuracy from the original sketch which I spent a bit more time on than usual, I wanted to spend a bit more time on construction this week since getting into the shading too quickly in previous weeks has put the final result of my work down. I started to get the main shape of the skull in by using lots of straight lines to get an idea of the curve I wanted to make, I liked this method a lot and I want to incorporate it more.

There is one major issue with this piece though it can only be seen when places up to reference, this is the difference in size of the jaw. If you are not given the reference then, to me, you cannot see how misjudged the size is. But it has made the skull a lot more masculine. This was really an issue with measurement and I think using a screen to work throws off my measurements sometimes. I obviously got the width to height ratio wrong here, but overall I don't think it takes too much away from the final piece.

As I started to get some of the main shading in this piece really came to life and at this stage I was still happy with it. I did struggle a bit with some of the placements of the bone but watching the video provided helped me understand the way the bone structure exists. I also looked at a lot of reference to try to further my understanding of the depth in the skull. This helped me in some areas but I did find trying to get the depth on the eye socket quite difficult and the addition of the screws and splits in the skull didn't help this.

To complete this piece, it was mostly a case of deepening the shading in some areas and then lightening it with my putty rubber. I am very happy with the outcome of this piece and I think adding the background really helped to bring out the skull as a whole. I am not sure about the addition of the plinth but I wanted to get the drop shadow into the piece which I felt would further enhance the shape and authenticity of the skull. I think it does help but I am not sure it effects it enough to be worth the addition. In these final stages of the piece I found it difficult to decide on the sort of texture I want, bone isnt completely smooth but it can appear as so. I am still not sure whether it would be beneficial to make the lines a lot smoother or leave them to add texture and interest. My favourite area on this piece is definitely the teeth as I think I did well to bring them out of the page by paying attention to the gaps and the contrast in that area. Overall, I am proud of this piece and I want to take the methods I used to other pieces.