“Art doesn’t just happen by accident. It is about pulling out new tricks and trying new things.” ~ Nicholas Meyer
Here is another one of my quick compositional studies from class where my teacher gave the model a story to act out. He told her that she would pose as different witnesses to a car accident. We were given about a minute to capture each pose and we had to decide how we would compose the figures. At the end, we were given a few minutes to tie up any loose ends.
The way I composed this sketch, the story is about the woman on the left. The woman is isolated from the group, so she becomes the focus of the piece. She is holding her face in her hands and is in the most distress of all the characters. I imagine she was part of the accident and survived or she knew the person in the accident. I used dark and hard lines while sketching her because she is closer the foreground. Using these types of lines also help to further reinforce the idea that she is the main focus of the composition.
To the right of her is a crowd of other women. These characters are made up of a photographer kneeling in the foreground and five other witnesses, one of them being a random celloist carrying her instrument in the background. They are drawn basically in an upside down triangle composition.
Triangular compositions are a very common and effective tool used by illustrators and filmmakers when grouping figures in art and film.
Well, it’s 3:57 AM and I’m getting tired. I hope my short analysis of my work was something of interest. I better get some sleep so I can pull another rabbit out of my hat tomorrow.
Related Posts
very talented. Look forward to seeing more from you so I can feature you on my site
Poignant and beautiful
The first thing I noticed was that the isolated woman does not have a visible know in her belt/sash while the rest of the women do. Until I saw the title, I assumed that they were all laughing at her no-knot faux pas and even taking pictures to ridicule her with later. It’s funny what other people will see in your art. Either way it’s a great sketch.
Something I noticed is that the posture of the isolated lady doesn’t quite match her attitude. She stands firmly, her feet are apart and solidly planted, and her back is straight. Her head may be hung into her hands, but it doesn’t quiet seem authentic, you know? Perhaps if she was kneeling or sitting head in hands… Other than that, the gawking crowd is perfect though, with the one woman taking pictures. Excellent job.