Clothed Figure

 21/03/21 - Week 24

This week, I created a clothed full body piece. I chose to do this in coloured pencil as though I do really like using chalks and charcoal I felt that I wouldn't be able to get the nuance I wanted for this piece if I were to use a heavy handed medium. 

I first started out with the sketch, This was very rough and there are definitely a lot of errors here. I was counting on trying to work in a lot of the detail with the pencil here and not worrying as much with the initial sketch itself. This was an interesting method and I do think I prefer having a better sketched out image in the first place to work into after experimenting with this. As you can see, there are a lot of proportional issues here at the beginning that I have left for myself to figure out.

Starting to add some colour, I also began to fix a lot of the proportional issues and also add detail to make it less rough. Looking back at this piece I still see some issues such as the left leg, I have always struggled with legs and I think this one suffered the most. I also feel that the shoulders are not wide enough for the proportion of the head. I was attempting to get across the slumped nature of the model but the perspective does not read.

I chose a toned down colour palette here as I wanted to try to create realistic looking clothing folds and most of these are created with the use of colour variation, especially on this piece. The white top allows for a lot of different colours to appear within the folds of the clothing which I find very interesting. The original image also had a colder colour palette so I have quite a few cool tones here as the cold surrounding reflects onto the white top and skin in particular.

As I finished off the piece, I emphasised some of the line weight and this really helped for the portrail of the feet in particular. I usually struggle with the feet but I am happy with the way I have conveyed them in this piece. I also fixed up the expression, tried to add some more contrast and deepen some colours which really helped to make some areas of this piece feel more finished and whole.

Though the white top was challenging to create the correct colour, I do not think it ended up being too bad. I am also happy with the clothing folds on this piece though there is still room for improvement on the realism factor in some senses.

Overall, I am happy with this piece though I do still see room for improvement, mainly in my own artistic intention for pieces like these. I should put more effort into thinking about contrast, colour palette and line weight rather than just going for the easiest or safest option. This would make my artwork more interesting and stylistic rather than just being a portrait or a study.

I think I was successful in portraying comprehendible anatomy and also accurate folds in the clothing, and though the colour isnt particularly experimental, I still like the way I have used it on this piece, especially for toning the top and skin tone to indicate shadow.