WEEK 10: 4TH DECEMBER 2012 - PART 1

This post will feature reviews of the following students work (in no particular order): Richard and Dave.

Apologies for the late post  regarding the final class of term but better late than never.

I have to say, this has been a good term and every student bar none  has displayed a level of development during the 10 weeks. Well done all of you.

Rather than post a mammoth blog, so epic that it would take forever to wade through, I am going to recap the final class and review the term over two or three, much easier to digest, posts.

I'll begin by reviewing each student's work  (in no particular order) for this term with any recommendations I think relevant.

RICHARD

You produced some nice work this term. I was hoping to see a continuation of the use of solid blacks and bolder lines that you made a breakthrough with last term. By that I do not mean your work has not been as good, I just fell it could be even better. I don't think you have to apply it to all of your work but if you can  make that leap again I think you will pleasantly surprised by the results. Still, good progress  especially regarding composition  and narrative.

The progress is clear when you look at the drawing on the far left from 2008 and then the two on the right from 2012.

 Here are a few more pieces that I thought were particularly good.

Top marks for composition on this one. Excellent!

 Richard, remember we were talking about shadows and I  was trying to remember the name of  an artist who does a fun thing  with shadows? Well his name is Craig Davison and his facebook page is: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Craig-Davison-Art-Official/349689058403958

and his website is : http://www.craigdavisonart.com/

 here are some of his paintings. I don't think I have to explain the concept do I?

DAVE

Nice progress this term. Keep it up.

Here are some pointers to improving  your work. 

In the landscape drawing of the flying dragon below, the mountains in the background , I feel, are interfering with the shape of the dragon and hindering it's impact.

If the drawing were in colour this may be overcome with colour scheme but as it is a black and white drawing, the dragon is becoming a little lost.

By addressing the skyline in the background (which I have done by applying  a solid area of grey so you can still see where your line work is) the shape of the dragon  becomes more prominent.

Adding darker shading detail to the wings  will create a sense of depth to the shape of the  dragon.

I think your creations are becoming a lot stronger, particularly the dragons and other beasts.
I think you couls make then more interesting by adding more detail. I will run through a few suggestions below. These are only suggestions and should you choose to respond to them I will leave the application and technique up to you.

 Nice solid design but let's explore the results of adding a little more detail.

Study the scales of an actual lizard and think of how they can be applied to your work.

On the example above I have also refined the brow as it joins the bridge of the nose.

in the example above  I have darkened around the eyes and continued to refine the shape of the brow  around the eye.

In the example above you can see that I have added teeth protruding from the jaws. This is, of course, is optional.

This is a really good   design. I would be interested to see  how this would look with more detail applied.

This ends part 1 of the end of term  review. I will post part 2 sometime over the next few days.