Final piece and prep

Charcoal observational studies for my final piece

Finalising the hair design for my final piece

Photographs for my final piece

These are photographs I took of my friend as to work from for my final piece. I chose to use her as her hair is red and black which I wanted to incorporate as it relates to the colour palette of the artist Ivor Abrahams. I wanted to include Abrahams' dark gothic passion in my work and this colours evoke this. I asked my friend to pose with her hand visible in the picture as I wanted to draw from Egon Schiele's work in which he pays close attention to the details of the structure of hands. I hope to use his style throughout the whole picture but I am confident I can accomplish at least with the hands as I have practised his style of drawing hands several times in my sketchbook.

Paint transfer

Charcoal and paint experimentation

Biro and charcoal observational drawing

This is a quick biro observational drawing that I did and didn't like so I decided to add charcoal to improve the tone, add depth and even out the harsh lines. I think it really improved, especially the hair which before looked far too light and had no depth or texture. If I were to try to do an exclusively biro drawing in the future I would spend longer building the tone and not use such harsh lines. The main problem with it was that I used the biro as if I would a pencil when it does not have the same blending qualities and I cannot erase it. 

This is a compilation of observational hand studies with the hand in different positions. Like the previous drawing I did it first in blue biro then went over it in charcoal to improve it. Before adding the charcoal it looked better than the biro face as I had spent more time on it and learnt from my mistake of using the biro too harshly. However the charcoal still really improved it and works well with the biro to create some contrast and colour variation. I tried to incorporate some of Egon Schiele's style by adding detail on the knuckles and making the finer and hand look more bony with a greater emphasis on the angles and shape of the hand.

This was an experimental piece using paint and biro. I made several handprints in white paint all over the page and a few light red handprints that I went over with the red to layer it and add texture. I then added two main red handprints which is one of my theme colours. I used blue biro to add the to hand over this with the outline and bony, emaciated Egon Schiele style fingers and some of the bone structure inside the hand. This relates to my theme by also showing the layers of the hand from the inside.