Traditional art practice: Human Head Construction (Week 7)

This week we were tasked with drawing a skull as part of human head construction.

Taking onboard feedback from enhancement week I made sure to take some pictures of my process.

Much like other pieces of work, my understanding of the skull and head construction isn't what I thought it was, when I was viewing the skull at certain angles, the shapes didn't match up correctly, which is why I initially broke down the structure into basic shapes, mainly circles and squares.

My shading was also a lot better than previous weeks, making sure to calibrate my pencil pressure and focusing on the lightness of the material. Overall, a skull is very light, meaning not much shading is needed unless it is intensely shadowed or a drop shadow. I tried to go to the contour of the skull while also using the side of the pencil to get a much more smooth shading to the object and it has paid off.

If I could change anything about this week's task, I would make sure to investigate the hard surface of the skull where highlight immediately meets shadow to get a more accurate result for flat surfaces or in areas of strong contrast.

Final outcome