Observational Drawings for Design: Some Drawings

Here are some drawings I did that I may use for the final outcome...

This is an extreme close up of a fifty pence piece. Its very simply but I feel is very effective!

This is in Eagles Meadow, Wrexham. Some of the people I think are out of proportion and it looks quite flat.

This is of a hand picking up the coin. I love this one, I think it's very effective and the shadow has been done nicely. It gives the image a nice sense of depth.

This was a rough/quick drawing of a hallway in halls of residence. Although the lines are quite wobbly I think the perspective is quite good. I may add a little shadow to give it a bit of depth.

This isn't from observation...it's just a quick drawing to work out the composition of how I want the shot to look. I used the drawing I did of the hall to help me with this.

This is of a hand holding the coin, there isn't something quite right about the shape of the coin that I may have to look at and revisit it. I am very pleased with the hand.

This is another drawing of a hand holding the coin, just in a differnt position and at a different angle. I am happy with this one, the coin looks fine and the hand is good.

This is of a hand being held out (supposedly wait for the coin to be placed in it). I was also very happy with this one.

This is another drawing of Eagles Meadow but closer up to a shop and alot more detailed. I love this but I feel the composition isn't very good for what I need to display.

Again, this is another drawing of the hall.

And finally I played around with the hand drawings on 'Macromedia Fireworks' and came up with this. This is what I am hoping one of my shots will look like! 

Overall I am very happy with all of the drawings I have done and should be able to do some interesting shots from them. And of course there are still more drawings that I need to do in order to get all of the desired shot types!

Observational Drawing for Design: Story Ideas

I felt that I should start the project by making a story, of course it needs to be a realistic one to be able to do observational drawings, here goes.....

I think I'll try and think of something that relates to me first, maybe one of those stories that Nan used to tell me when little...no that wouldn't be possible to do. I would need an orchard and I don't know where one is, I would need an actual house to draw from and I don't have one of those...oh and a horse and some fairies.....hmmm. Ok maybe not!
Something realistic... I miss driving. Maybe something to do with a car...and man and his car go everywhere together, the shops, cinema, football stadiums. The man loves his car so much that he washes it alot...it's always really clean and sparkling! then one day he goes to the garage to have an MOT but his car fails...and the man is very sad, very sad indeed! There's nothing he can do to make it better! His car has to go to the scrapyard.

What would I need to be able to do this story...a footbal stadium (not a problem), shops (got plenty of those), garage (I'm sure I can find one), a car....I haven't got, that will be a problem.
Another problem that I have worked out is that I would need more than nine shots to be able to show the story clearly. Maybe try and thing of another story, a simpler one....

...A ha! I've got it...."The Journey of a..." I could do a story on a journey of an object, something that travels and is passed around alot. I got this idea from two of the required shots... CU of hand holding an object and another CU of something being exchanged. It's very simple but that way I can develop or play with it which ever way I wish!I just need to decide what the object will be..the first thing that comes to mind is a coin. It is an object that is very commonly moving from place to place and person to person. If I can't think of anything else that would be relavant I will go with it. 

So this  is what my storyboard sequence will be...

1) ES- An extreme closeup of the object
2) LS - Drawing of a location with the object in it
3) MLS - Person entering a doorway, spots the object on the floor
4) CU - Object being held b a hand (picking up object)
5) LS - Another location with the person who picked the object up in it
6) Extra - Person standing opposite shop keeper near a till
7) CU - Person exchanges the object with shop keeper
8) MS - Face of happy shop keeper
9) Final Closing shot- yet to be determined

Observational Drawing for Design

This Monday (11th October) we were set our next project, mine was "Observational Drawing for Design".

"Drawing is an essential tool in the communiation process because of its immediacy and economical way of producing design solutions. A sketch or drawing is more communicative than words in ensuring that everyone involved with a project knows your design intensions. Few people can draw well just from memory, most use reference. This assignment is about finding the objects and locations to fit your categories and drawing them to represent your story. The objective is to develop the use of bservational drawing within the design process and in communication an effective solution.  

Produce pencil drawings to visualise the following scenes using the appropriate shot types. You can place the images in any order to create a story.

1) CU- Hand holding an object

2) LS- Perspective drawing of a street/corridor/station

3) MLS- Person enters a doorway

4) CU- Something is exchanged

5) MS - Face registering emotion

6) LS- Street/corridor/station, different viewpoint

7) Final/closing shot

8) ES Establishing shot

9) Extra Shot (your choice)

Work realistically using yourself, other people and locations to create drawings, (9:16 ratio). You will need to create a story based on the images and can place them in any order to achieve this. 

See my next post to see my work for this assignment..

Out and About

On the 10th October (Sunday) I went out with a friend around Wrexham and did some drawings of buildings...

This one is of Waterworld at Wrexham. It's not all of the building as I couldn't see the bottom half but you can get the idea of it! I found it quite an interesting building to draw as it has some interesting shapes and angles!

This building is of the police station...it's got to be the ugliest building in Wrexham! However like Waterworld it was very interesting to draw...even more so when we went round to the other side of it...

....it started to look quite pretty to me the more I drew it, looking at the complexity of its shape and form. I think I fell in love with it in the end! I drew this one landscape in my book as if it was on a Tv sceen or computer,unlike the last.

Then we went to the Old Brewery. This had quite alot of different parts to it. I loved the buildings charcter. The part on the left went wrong as it all became out of proportion as to how it actually is. But I think it looks ok.

Overall I found the day fun and really enjoyed drawing the different buildings, at times it was challenging but I like a good challenge!

The Drawing Room

On the 5th October I had m first drawing session in the drawing room. We had to try and draw each other without lifting our pens off of the paper...was quite tricky! I don't think I managed to not take my pen of off the paper but I managed to make some nice line drawings. Here is what I did...

This was my very first one of one of the lads. I did this without looking at the page, I was quite amused when I saw it for the first time!

These two drawings are of the same girl. I drew her twice as I wasn't happy with the first one, for example her nose is way too big. I am happier with the second one as it looks more like her (except the wonky eyes, angler cheek and funny nose..but I feel it makes it quite quirky!).

These are of two different boys..Bas is on the left (he comes from Holland) and James on the right. With these I looked at and observed them more. Both of these boys were interesting to draw as both have very distinctive features.

These two aren't so good...they were less observed as you can most probably see. Both characters noses are wayyy to big! They are both very simple.

I love the drawing of the boy on the left, this one came out very well and the use of my line was effective when showing the creases and folds in his hat. The man on the right is good but his head needs extending a bit at the back other than that I'm pleased with it.

Next I went onto drawing stuffed birds that were in the room. I really enjoyed this exercise. they were alot easier to draw as they didn't move! However the different shapes were quite challenging.

These next three drawings are my favourite out of all of the birds. I loved the level of detail in the actual bird and so tried to reflect it in my drawings, I feel I did this effectively. These ones are alot more pleasing to view. And going back to the weeks project I turned the bird to get a couple of different angles of it.

Feedback from my tutor was to include the surrounding into my drawing and not just the object I am drawing. So next time I do a drawing I will also try to include it's environment! Overall I was pleased with this drawing session and can't wait for the next!

27 Layouts of Dynamic Arrangements

Well on the 4th October I had my very first class on my course at University!
My first project was "Composition for Screen and Image". I had to pick 2 objects for example a teapot, padlock etc...I chose a keyring of an orange wellington boot and a blue pencil (I love conplimentary colours). Then using 3 A3 sheets of paper I had 'draw 27 layouts of dynamic arrangements of the objects', of which both objects had to be in every frame.I had one week to do this.

These are the compositions I came up with... (They are not in the same order that I draw them)

Here I used charcoal and pen. Long shot. I feel this works well and has an interesting perspective...maybe something that wouldn't be easily achieved with a camera.

Birds Eye Long Shot. Coloured  pencil and normal pencil. I love the 2 colours I used...orange and blue (complimentary colours) so I used it in some of my drawings. This one's simplicity works well for me.

Coloured pencil, charcoal and pen. Close up (Pencil), Long Shot (Boot). I like the contrast of the closeness of the pencil against the distance of the boot.

Coloured felt tip pens and charcoal. Long shot. In this one I love the way I rendered it, it makes the image alot more exciting.

Extreme Close Up. Pen and a little bit of charcoal. I'm not to happy with this one, the pencil and boot look a bit lost and are pushed into the corner too much. If I was to do this again I would move the 2 objects further into the shot.

Long shot. Charcoal and Pen. This one is ok. The objects seem distorted but this makes the composition and perspective quite interesting. Again, this wouldn't be so easily achieved with the camera.

Pastels and pen. Long Shot. With this one I did it so ou are looking up at the objects, this one was interesting to draw and made it quite different to the rest.

Pastels and pen. Extreme close up (Boot), long shot (Pencil). I love this one, its simple but effective and showss alot of depth through distance in this shot.

Pastels. Extreme Close Up. This is nice a bold...and in its own right, abstract! Being abstract I can imagine it would make it that little bit more interesting for the viewer to look at!

Charcoal and pen. Mid Shot. This one you are also looking up at...but more from directly underneath. Like the last it also looks quite abstract, it's harder to make out that the boot is a boot! This one wasn't my more favourite.

Pencil, pen and charcoal. Long shot. With this one I didn't achieve what I was hoping for  but I am pleased with the result. I'm not happy with the shadow, I feel I should have looked at it more carefully. The way it has been done it looks like it's sinking into the surface it's on!

Charcoal and pen. Long shot. I love this one, I love the distortion that emphasizes the perspective and depth in the shot. I feel it has a great feel to it.

Charcoal and pen. Close up (Boot) and long shot (pencil). I feel that this shot makes the objects feel like characters, as if the boot has turned around from the pencil and is now walking away (at this moment, if the boot was a character, you would be registering it's emotions on its face).

Coloured pencils. Close up (pencil end) and long shot (boot). This also gives a great feel of depth to the shot, just by playing around with and emphasizing perspective.

Coloured pencils. Close up. This shot is a little bit abstract, and I like that. Think this close up works well and am hapy with the composition.

Charcoal and Pen. Mid Shot (Boot) and Long shot (pencil). Again, the depth in this is great. This time the perspective is more realistic but works really well and effectively.

Coloured pencils. Extreme Close Up. Another abstract shot, I included a bit more detail in this one that the other extreme close up and didn't allow for any gaps.

Coloured Pencils. Mid shot. This one is very side on, both objects are flat to you, which doesn't give the shot any depth at all. I like the composition though, if they were charcters I can imagine that they are walking or moving from left to right across the screen with the boot leading.

Pencil. Extreme close up. Another extreme close up. I don't find this one as interesting because of the lack of colour and the only detail on it is the light and shadows.

Pencil. Close up. I found this interesting, however it feels a little confusing! For a start the pencil has been made quite 3D and is floating (maybe it could be flying) and then you you have the boot that is very flat. Something isn't working for me with this one.

Pencil. Mid shot (boot) and close up (pencil). I like this one, it's simple but works well. The object are very side on and flat but the shot has depth because of the composition (the pencil being close and the boot sitting further away).

Pencil. Mid lond shot (boot) and long shot (pencil). Like this one, it's like the 2 object have had a fight and are now turned away from each other. The distance between them shows that seperation. I love the composition, the way that they are both facing left and have that space infront of them with hardly any behind.

Pencil. Close up. This one is almost abstract too, I like it...it's certainly different from the other shots!

Pencil. Mid Long shot. Not too happy because the pencil is cut out of the shot. If done again I would include all of the pencil. Again, because they are slightly turned to the left I placed them slightly on the right so that there is more space on the side that they are almost pointing to.

Pencil. Long shot. Again the boot is side on. I feel this shot would be stronger if the boot looked slightly more 3 dimensional. And I feel that there is a bit too muck empty space. However the space and composition makes it different from the rest.

Pencil. Long Shot. Like some of the other shots I have left space in one part of the shot. This one has space behind the objects instead of infront. This gives the effect that the 2 objects have just been there and are now moving away, into the distance.

Pencil. Long shot.This was my very first one, I think the objects could be positioned on the page better...if done again I would place them up a bit so that the gap below and above them were as equal as possible.


Over all I reall enjoyed this project, I enjoyed the challenge. I found it really hard to think of the last nine but I feel that with that I just became a little more imaginative and come out with some really interesting compositions and layouts!