Artist research

To get an even better understanding of the figure I went to visit Leonardo Di vinci exhibition 'Anatomical drawings' where Di vinci studies how the body works internally by cutting into bodies to study how certain thinks worked and how things effected one another. He was well ahead of anyone in his era with the understand of the body. However what stood out to me in the exhibition was how precise and beautifully done his drawings were. I am quite squeamish when it comes to the body and dissecting them. However he drew with a quill and ink and make the drawings have a romantic soft feel to them. What was also fascinating about him is he wrote in mirror hand because he was left handed. So he basically wrote everything backwards making even the writing on the pages look delicate and beautiful. 

Photography research

From the drawings and photos I had done, made me want to start looking at other artist work that I could work from and get different ideas of drawing the figure. 

A photographer that stood out whos images I though were beautiful is Sally Mann, I bought her book still time which has a combination of different topics but I focused at looking at the figure images. 

What I feel is so amazing about her work is she does not just do the figure in a form way she compliments it with something different. In the first image she has used a wet piece of silk or some sort of material to add a romantic tone to the picture which could be seen as vulgar. In the second image there is this sense of mystery not knowing why the arm is clasping the wall and how the fan like sleeve makes the hand look even more delicate. In the last image which is one of my favourite it is a child's figure with a flower of some kind acting as a large necklace. The white of the flower contrasts so well with the darkness of the skin. I feel all of these images are so simple yet enticing for the viewer. 

Another Photographer I found with researching Miroslow Tichy. His work has a vintage feel to it as if the images are very old and not quite in focus. What I find amazing about him is he makes his own cameras that is why his images have such an intriguing affect. Here are some examples below.

Here is a picture of one of his home made cameras, this could be a possible area I could go into, making my own camera to create intriguing affects.

Female Figure drawing

I feel I have spent so much time examining the male figure I wanted to look into the female figure. This made me go back to the pirelli Calendar where the photographer Mario Sorrenti take picture of the female models in their purest form no make up no clothes just a simple black and white image in the nude and having the light hit their bodies in an intriguing way. This is a drawing I did based on one of the images in the calendar. 

http://www.fashionologie.com/2012-Pirelli-Calendar-Mario-Sorrenti-Pictures-20749310

Above is a short video of Mario shotting the models and below that is a link to the final images for the calendar