Wiktoria Kuczewska

In this post I`m going to shed some light on my graduation project – series of drawings: `Body lines` (`Linie ciała`).

This week, defenses of diploma works in the field of drawing and painting, as well as the specializations of our choice (in my case it was graphic design), took place. It seems like just right time to summarise the last few months of work.

Decoding inspiration

The subject of my work, its main motif, is the human figure. The body portrayed both in a state of rest and `frozen` in a moment of movement. The choice of this motif was a natural decision for me, stemming from my passion for creating quick sketches from nature (often timed), especially of the human silhouette. The frequent understatements characteristic for the drawings created in a short period of time time were the most inspiring to me. I thought about `quick sketching` as of a preliminary form of visual note-taking for a long time. However, over time, I began to realise its importance in developing my sense of observation. Time constraints often forced me to make quick, intuitive decisions.

One of the main reasons why I became interested in the human figure is its universality. As every person in the world has their own physical form, the human body is something that most people can understand and identify with, making it a perfect mean of expression. Moreover, it serves as a rich source of forms and proportions for me. The diversity of gestures and the countless combinations of poses inspire me and provide opportunities for experimentation.

Sketches – the stepping stones

While working on my series of graduation artworks, I focused primarily on exploring different means of expression and investigating aspects such as proportions, movement, anatomy, and especially how the arrangement of planes of light and shadow affects our visual experience. Numerous smaller, quick sketches of figures that I made over the course of several months served as my starting point. I aimed to transfer the minimalism, suggestiveness, freedom, and synthesis of form characteristic for such sketches onto a larger format, while also complementing it with realistic details. The works were created based on sketches from nature as well as many photographs. The final form combines features of my previous figure drawings executed from the same perspective. From these sketches, I selected what I considered to be the best fragments, and then used them in the final large-scale composition.

I started preparing sketches back in July (more of them can be found there: https://www.wiktoriakuczewska.pl/drawings/):

My reflection

My overarching goal was to create a synthetic study of the human figure and to depict the play of light and shadow. This influenced my choice of technique. I wanted to focus solely on explorations related to form, which is why I opted for a monochromatic approach. The charcoal drawing technique itself facilitated my pursuit of synthesis, allowing for coverage of larger areas, freedom, and elements such as blurring. However, due to its impermanent nature, it sometimes made it challenging to refine details.

The biggest challenge during the creation of the graduation project was trying to maintain a sense of freshness in the drawing and the original dynamism, without falling into extreme synthesis – while preserving the recognizability of the subject. My graduation project presented an opportunity to work with a larger format than before, with a synthetic form of representation, attempting to depict the human form using a limited number of lines, sometimes almost flat patches, planes of light and shadow. It was also another exercise, an attempt to understand the anatomy of the human body.

This project, as well as plenty of my other artworks, can be found on my instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/wkuczewska/?hl=pl

For more similar projects check: https://www.wiktoriakuczewska.pl/drawings/