Week Summary - BA1b Week 5

Vintage Phone

I made the mistake of using the wrong reference initially, but as many of these phones share similar shapes, it didn't take too long for me to correct.

All that's left for me to do is to add the dial and wire, and make a few additional tweaks to certain proportions. Having only ever tried low-poly modelling in the past, creating more realistic models has been interesting, and I like how this one in particular has turned out. Creating these complex shapes requires a very distinct thought process which I think I'm starting to get the hang of, although I still have a long way to go.

Photoshop Session

As I was ill last week, I attended another group's photoshop session to catch up. We used adjustment layers, masks and some other techniques to merge two images together. I chose two images at random and tried to focus on colour temperature and lighting to make it look believable.

There were points where I wanted to paint over the image, but I wanted to see what I could do with only these layers. I found them a very useful non-destructive way of testing out ideas and adjusting parts of the image quickly. Looking at the final product now I think it could do with having some of the mushroom colour reflected in the water, but I'm fairly happy with how this sits overall, and I think it is fairly convincing, at a glance at least.

Life drawing

This week's session focused on hands, as well as a brief look at perspective. I lost confidence during the second sketch, and it took me a few drawings to build myself back up, but I'm really satisfied with most of these, however unfinished many of them are. I definitely need to work on my speed in sketching, but I feel that my line quality is improving as well as my understanding of these structures.

I found that starting from a hard surface like the knuckles or the heel of the palm and working my way out from there to be very helpful, with a quick undersketch to help me keep the proportions in mind. I also never realised before how flexible the base of the thumb is, and understanding this has, I think, really helped me improve with regards to hands.

I'm considering trying out some different media in our next session, because I want to unbalance myself a little. I'm very comfortable with the graphite sticks I usually use, so I want to try something unfamiliar to force me to think a little more when I'm drawing.