Lesson 9 - Letterforms

For this lesson, we had to bring a handwritten alphabet with all letters in different fonts which we had to find in the town. I tried to work with a brush and Indian ink, which was a challenge for me because I am not used to this technique. I think they look quite good, especially because my writing skills aren't really good.

 

We were working with them in illustrator and the task was to add a texture to them. I am not very satisfied with the final result because my textures would work more with photos and in vector they look just like noise. However, I am happy that I learned a new technique which I can use in my future projects and this lesson also taught me how to use other tools in illustrator.

Lesson 9 - Location drawing The Hive

The last drawing lesson was location drawing in The Hive. I was worried again because I am still not confident with my sketching and my first sketches only confirmed my worries - I wasn't satisfied with them at all. I was nervous so I couldn't draw properly and it wasn't loose enough. But as I continued drawing, I could see how my sketches look better and better as I started sketching with mechanical pencil. Drawing with my mechanical pencil makes me more confident because I feel like I have control in what I am doing and I tried to draw as loose and relaxed as possible. As I wrote in my essay, when I compare the first sketch of Kristina drawing next to bookshelves to the other two sketches of Kristina (lying on a sofa and drawing in an armchair), I can see that in the first sketch I was nervous and the other two sketches are much better than the first one. I am aware of that I need to be able to sketch with different media but I am happy that I made such a big progress at sketching with at least one medium and motivates me to continue doing it.

Nullibicity - Character design (Ben and Simon)

Lesson 8 - Riverside walk

This lesson we did location drawing around the river Severn. I met friend Addison and he joined me, so I sketched him looking at the river and sitting on a bench and I also did few sketches of ideas I wanted to draw.

Then I tried to draw the one with bridge and river but after two attempts with charcoal and Gioconda, I wasn't satisfied with it at all. Now, looking at it, I don't think it's that bad, but back then I felt desperately again, so I left it for another day.

When I came back to the riverside, I decided to start with the house in the docks but I put in next to the river because I though it will look more aesthetically pleasing. I also added few trees in the background. I still wasn't really happy with my drawing skills so I changed charcoal for Gioconda and I tried to draw something else. I liked those old crooked willows so I drew them, except I removed people and a bench. I was happy with this drawing and I think it's the most successful one. Then I tried to draw the bridge again, using a continuous line technique and although I am not very happy about it and I also forgot to draw Addison there, I finished it and moved to the last drawing. I wanted to draw people as well so I added a couple walking next to the river. I tried to draw sky with clouds again and I think it looks better than in the drawing of an amusement park from the Christmas break homework.

Lesson 7 - Illustrator

In the first lesson with illustrator we were learning basic things in this programm. I have never worked with illustrator before, so I really enjoyed this session.

The first task was to create a vector from our drawing. This is my favourite picture from the lecture, I really like the smooth lines of vector combined with colours. I can't decide between the pink lineart or the coloured one.

The second task was to create a vector from a photo. I created two vector pictures from two photos I had taken before. The first one os my sister. I used green and yellow because those are her favourite colours. It was quite difficult to choose the right ratio of green shades and yellow lights because her eyes were in the shadow and she has dark hair, which is not very visible in the photo as much as in illustrator.

The second time I used a photo of me and I decided to use 3 colours instead of 2. My favourite colours are blue and purple so I used these two colours, following the first picture of my sister. I like that it looks like a poster although if I wanted to do this again, I would use photos taken specially for making a vector, because it would look better with shadows and lights in places where I want them to be.

Lesson 7 - Life drawing

In this lesson, we again started with quick sketches. The less time we had, the more complicated it was and I found out that I have to do this exercise more, although I think the one-minute sketch is quite successful and I also think the 30-seconds one isn't really bad. Those shorter ones were very difficult to capture, because I just started drawing and I had to finish, I didn't even had time to think about how to start it.

The next exercise was fun but a bit confusing, because we drew the same pose three times from a different angle but on the same sheet of paper, covering the last one. Although we used a different media for each drawing, the more lines I had there, the less I could see what I am drawing. However, I think the drawing is quite good and proportions are almost correct. I also think it was a good exercise to try different media and colours.

I am happy with my last two drawings from this lesson. I think I can say that proportions in this first one are drawn almost correctly, although Mel's head was falling lower and lower during the drawing. I didn't have enough time to do the shading but I think the shaded part is three-dimensional and it's coming out of the paper properly. In the second one I tried to use coloured pencils and this time I did all shading except the head, which is also a bit incorrect to the body. But I think the body looks good, it's also coming out of the picture and the proportions look okay to me. Unfortunately, I forgot to sketch the space around her and the scarf she was lying on is sketched only with yellow pencil, which makes it not very visible and then I didn't have enough time to draw it so she looks like floating in the white space.