Nude Sketches Day 1

These sketches are from our first day with a model.  The first ones are the sketches that were done in a very short amount of time, and as you move further down to the other sketches, the time spent working was lengthened a bit each time.  The focus for this day was to capture the proportions of a nude body, while also proportionally placing them in the surrounding space.

Continuation of Day 1

A continuation of the sketches from the first day.  This is two views of the same sketch, one closer up,  and one farther away.  This sketch was also the longest of the day, which was about an hour of working time.

Cezanne Quotes: Sketch 3

The last quote I chose to illustrate was, "I am old and ill, and I have sworn to die painting."  After doing a little research on Cezanne himself, I found out that painting was in fact the last thing he was doing before being bed ridden and dying a few days later.  I thought that this was kind of ironic so I decided to make my own depiction of the quote.  The quote states that Cezanne wanted to die while he was painting, so in my sketch I created a kind of foreshadowing of the end of his life.  I created a sketch that depicted Cezanne creating a painting of his own grave stone, in which he "dies" before he could finish his last name on the grave stone.

Cezanne Quotes: Sketch 2

The second quote I chose was, "The contour eludes me."  This sketch is a little more abstract than the first in comparison to the quote.  After thinking a bit about what could be used to represent this quote, I thought what better than the NYC Skyline.  The reason for this is because when we view the skyline, the contour does in fact elude our eye.  When looking straight across the river it is hard for one to tell where the edge of one building ends and where the next begins, and for this reason, we have trouble making out the contour of each building.  On the other hand, when the sides of the buildings seemingly "blend" together into one object, it creates a new contour, which is known as the famous New York City Skyline.

Cezanne Quotes: Sketch 1

The first quote I chose to sketch was,"It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas."  In this sketch I went pretty literal according to the quote.  The reason for this was because I felt that the image would go along with the strength and meaning of the quote.  The sketch is simple, a man, standing in front of what is an oversized canvas.  The reason I made the canvas larger was to emphasize the importance of the quote.  It is so fine to stand in front of a blank canvas because it provides you with all of the opportunities in the world.  It allows you to take advantage of everything in your life.  On the other hand it is terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas because sometimes we are unsure of what to do or think, or what comes next in our lives.  At times a blank canvas could represent the daunting fear of what the future could hold, or it could represent the lack of effort or creativity in life's tasks.  

Hand Sketch

Not much to explain here.  Just a study of my own hand holding my iPhone.  First I attempted to block out the hand geometrically, and then I went on to work with the proportions. After sketching everything out, I went in to work on the shading and the details of the hand.  I used a combination of hatching, cross hatching, bracelet lines, and some normal shading to create the form.