UNIT 8 Primary Research: Reportage and observational drawings

Although the primary research I collected on portraiture at the 'Changing Faces of Leeds' exhibition at Leeds City Museum was incredibly useful and diverse I wanted to further explore portraiture and facial structure by producing more primary research. I decided to produce this primary research by completing a series of two minute reportage drawings varying in style and media. This research was fun to create as I am not used to drawing so quickly therefore the quality of the drawings are slightly humorous.

Series of reportage drawings of my brother Joe

In this series where I drew my brother I created these 5 images using the style and media of: Layered drawing in coloured pencil, Blind drawing in oil pastel, Observational drawing in watercolour, Continuous Line drawing in pen and a one look drawing in pencil. My favourite drawing from this series is the layered drawing as I drew him like an anime character and the colours compliment each other. When using the blind technique I focused on trying to draw the main facial features and in the drawing the head shape, nose, mouth, jawline, hairline, eyes and glasses are slightly recognisable.



Series of reportage drawings of my sister Tianna

In this series I wanted to create diversity within my series therefore I switched around the combinations of style and media. The five images I produced this time are: Blind drawing in pen, Observational drawing in oil pastel, One look drawing in watercolour, Layered drawing in pencil and a continuous line drawing in coloured pencil. My favourite drawing within this series is the blind drawing although its out of proportion I think it looks quite interesting and reminds me of Picasso's work.

 

Series of reportage drawings of my sister Cally

The third series was the most unsuccessful of my reportage drawings as the only drawing that looks remotely like my sister is the observational drawing. However in this series I mixed up the style and media combination again so that I have thoroughly explored the effect of using the various media and styles together. From left to right I have produced: Observational drawing in pen, One look drawing in coloured pencil, continuous line drawing in pencil, Blind drawing in watercolour and layered drawing in oil pastels. I found that the hardest combination was using the watercolours to create a blind drawing as it was hard to mix colours and know whether I needed to rewet the brush or not.

 

 This research despite the low quality was surprisingly useful; due to the speed of the activity I found that I put emphasis on certain features - eyes, nose, jawline and hairline - of the face in order to make sure the result would some what resemble a face. Therefore, in my mind these are the focal points of the face and however I choose to involve the face within my design work I should place emphasis on these elements to ensure the form of the face is correct.