Dance Project: Drawing

One area that I am focussing on particularly throughout this project is my drawing. My drawing skills are not my strong point so I have been practicing everyday and trying lots of new techniques in order to improve my drawing ability.

I started by copying images and drawing them on black paper with a white pencil. this worked well as I didn’t feel like I had the wide open space to fill that I get with a piece of blank white page. so this allowed my to start focussing on proportions, drape and detail. I found this technique really useful for my initial sketches from mood boards I had done. it also allowed me to look at shapes and details that I could reflect in my designs. I found that my most successful drawings from this technique were drawings of dancers in flowing chiffon dresses as I felt that I was able to capture their movement effectively. However I need to start looking and the drape of costumes in greater detail and where the light and shadows hit.

Once getting more comfortable with drawing I started on white paper and drawing static figures but with fully detailed costumes drawn on them; this allowed me to really focus on the construction of costumes and where the buttons and seams would be. I found that going into this after drawing on the black paper had improved my drawing ability and I was able to capture the costumes closer to how I had visualised them in my head.

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After a tutorial with my tutor she suggested that I try then taking my designs and drawing them onto figures of dancers that I had traced. I found this advice really helpful as I was able to draw a figure quickly by tracing images of dancers from pinterest photocopying them and then designing. I also found this helped me realise areas of my costume that I would need to alter for extra movement and what fabrics I would need to consider for easy movement. I was also able to focus completely on the details and drape of my designs as I didn’t need to worry about the figure looking right.

I am really pleased with how my drawing is coming along and the different techniques I have tried have all been really helpful and have allowed me to focus more on detail and construction than stressing out about a figure like I have done in the past.