Visual Design Week 7 - OH NO not cars!

After a relatively relaxing employability week during week 6, week 7 just so happened to be the most difficult drawings we had done to date, which is understandable considering we need to be progressing. Cars are something I have avoided like the plague since I began drawing, and I honestly cannot recall the last time I attempted one. This is definitely a mistake on my part, because now I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of skill. I am trying my very best though, and sadly you cannot see these efforts as of yet because I haven't gathered the images yet to post here, and so you will have to deal with my slightly more successful sketches which I did during my life drawing class.

The pages above are mainly just filled with the usual left-handed quick drawings etc. However, if you notice the ones on the second page you'll see a slight inclusion of tone, which is a first for the warm up sketches. The idea was to try and draw the figure and get a basic idea of tone in just 2 minutes, which was new for me since I had never applied tone in such a rush before. I enjoyed it though, and feel like the sketches come to life even after just a quick 30 second shade.

I'm particularly pleased with the piece above, as I had done drawings using charcoal and the rubbing out technique and before they had turned out dreadful, so anything was going to be an improvement I can assure you. The idea is to prep the large sheet of paper with a mid-tone of charcoal, and then spend around 10 minutes rubbing out and trying not to produce an outline, and then spending 10 minutes going over and filling in the darker areas in charcoal. Although awfully messy, I feel this technique produces relatively nice looking drawings even when you haven't done it proportionately correct. I have been told I need to work on producing work which looks smoother, as I have a tendency, especially with charcoal, to scribble in the tones and never really blend. This means the softness of the skin isn't shown, and so I need to work on being more subtle and producing a rounder looking form.