Foreshortening: Urban

This image explored the theme of foreshortening in an urban landscape. The buildings are of primary interest as the shrink off into the distance. You can see on all the architecture, the windows the doors, the wooden beams of the houses that they are all distorted at angles that reflect the foreshortening that this perspective on the building give us. Though the architectural details such as the roves of the third house along provide interesting detail on the angle of the view point, the trees in front of the house really stand out in terms of perspective. Though the trees appear to be evenly spaced out along the street the majority of them only appear in the last third of the page, and each gets progressively smaller and lighter. The vanishing point of this image is in the middle of the right slightly off the page and the lines of the architecture as well as the implied lines of the trees and the line of the street all act as the orthogonal lines pointing towards it. Almost everything in this image points towards the vanishing point accept the branches in the top right which serve to balance out the image.

Two-Point Perspective

The focus point of this image is the bell tower which from this vantage point we can see from two sides.  This gives us a two point perspective on it which helps to give a sense of depth and the illusion of three dimensions to this piece. The use of shadow can be very effective when working with two point perspectives and here we see it on the steeple as well as the roof top. The extrusion from the bell tower are also seen from two point perspective and on each one side has been shaded in more than the others, showing the shadow, with the left extrusion casting a shadow onto the wall thus giving away the position of the sun.

The building to left of the image gives us an interesting perspective at its closest corner, where we can see both sides of its walls but also its roof tops. This appears in a very different manner to that of the steeple which is not only a higher building but also has a far steeper slope to its roof because of this at the corner we see three perspectives meet not just two adding to the complexity of the image. 

Colour

In this landscape a wide variety of colour was used. In the background a mix of browns and greens to give the impression of trees on the hillside which have some reds and yellows subtly mixed in for variance within it. The mid ground uses more clear greens and yellows, with the three trees exaggerated to black and gold. The field to the right is mostly yellow and green and some more reds have been added to the brown of the path. In the foreground the mix of yellows is replaced with a mix a blues in with the green along with small hints of greys, all done to bring an added element of life to the image. This was also done to separate these three areas and thus give the image a sense of distance between them, the warmer background colours contrast and compliment the colder more blue colours of the front; this gives the piece more complexity.  The main focus of the image is at the end of the path where the middle tree grows; beyond this path we can see the next field along which is a bright unmixed green making the focal point brighter. The middle tree is also the brightest of the three as it isn’t darkened and mixed into the chaos of its background. 

Curves in Landscape

The focus of the image is in the midground where the three trees are, the line of the hill they are seated on roughly goes along the rule of thirds top horizontal line, with each of the outer threes of the three marking a vertical line.  This image also has a great focus on curve. Firstly the curvature of the hill themselves from left to right and the change in steepness can be seen. Then also the roundness and shape of the hills vertically across the page, the paths appearances from this perspective do a lot to add to the feel of shape for it. The distortion of the path on the front hill gives the impression of the hill being curved giving it a better sense of depth. While the path on the further hill shows us how steep the hill is while also revealing its scale as we have the two path segments to compare. The hedge on the left edge of the further hill also reveals the hills shape by its curve as you can see it rising across the hill and the then disappearing steeply down the other side, giving a real impression of depth. 

Single View-Point Landscape

The image tries to give the impression of depth when looking down a path although the angle of the path compared to the angle of the trees doesn't quite look accurate. The medium of charcoal gives us some good tools for creating different textures and shading and the use of this on the path itself as it fade into the distance does give the impression of depth.  The rule of thirds is fairly present in this piece with the rock lying on an intersession and also, along with the division between this part of path and the further one mark the horizontal lines of the thirds. There is also foreshortening on the grassy verge along the left side and some clear dirt mounts on the right.

Human Figure: Life Drawing

Life drawing image uses tonal changes to give the idea of muscles depth as well as an idea of lighting, we can also see some good observation of anatomy for example the muscles of the leg are clearly recognisable, both the curve of the lower leg and the bend of the knee are carefully done with knowledgeable tonal effects you can also see the detail of the ankle and heels of the feet. The top half of the inner leg is shaded as the body and the table are sheltering it from full illumination. Above it the navel a dark spot amounts the light stomach shaded only to guide the curves of the body to reveal the shape. The positioning of the navel helps give away the slight twist in the body, the legs facing towards us with the upper torso turned to face left as the figure leans on the table. The arms show necessary foreshortening on the image with the dark crease of the fold in the arm and the elbow clearly bent then the arm heading towards us. Near shoulder is a good example of muscle in the image, with the shape of the shoulder them the impression of the bicep created through variance in the tone. 

Human Figure: Tone

This anatomy image explores tone in the creation of the impression of the human figure; different tones are used in multiple ways in this image. Darker tones are used on the leg to distance it from the rest of the body and give the idea of depth. The darkest tones are used on the cloth of the table to bring attention to the body and highlight its lighter tones. On the back we see the idea of the spine a being given using the grey tones. There is selectivity in the shading, the back is mainly unfeatured so remains mostly white with however some hints of muscles. The darker tones are used to show the curve of the shoulders as well as the curve around the chest. The impression of muscles is gains though the shading on the arm curved and primarily to the front of the arm. There’s a lack of tonal variation on the head and neck as the muscles and lighting of the skin in this area was of less interest, however with the large light patches on the back of the arm and on the back the tones of the head fit in well.