Figuring Out The Body
Once again it was the end of the week which meant another
all day life drawing session. After enjoying last Friday's class I was eager to
get started. In the first part of the lesson we were focusing on capturing the
essence of the figure by doing quick sketches. We started with 5 minutes then had
less and less time till we were down to 30 seconds per drawing. I found this
was an interesting and difficult way of drawing because I normally take my time
and like to map out every part before I move on. However, with this I had no
time to spare and had to get as much down as quickly as I could before the time
was up. I had to try and think of ways to capture the form of the figure as
quickly as possible with the least amount of lines. With that in mind I started
drawing quickly.
From one drawing to the next I didn't have much time to
think about if the position or proportions were right on my drawings, I just
had to go with my first instinct. After drawing normally for a while, we were
then told to make a couple of drawings without taking the pencil off the paper.
We only had a couple of minutes to draw a pose with just one line, and not
taking the pencil off the paper. The pencil was always moving forward. With
this type of drawing I had to think a step ahead of where my pencil was so I
could keep the line going in the short amount of time we had. This was a hard
way to draw. I not only had to think of the outline, but how I would connect
the lines inside.
After the quick drawings were done it was time to start the
main study. We started covering the paper with charcoal, then mapping out the
figure. Using the same system as last lesson, I started measuring the model by
establishing the head size then seeing how many head lengths go into the rest
of the body. I then resized that onto the paper so that the figure would fill
the page, once that was done I started drawing the head and shoulders measuring
as I went and adjusting where I needed to.
Once the figure was drawn I had to add tone. With the black
background I had to take away the dark areas with a rubber to show the light. I
went around the drawing adding darker tones for the shadows and rubbing away to
show the light. I was just finishing when it was time to start the next
drawing. We were given a shorter time to finish this last drawing, 50 minutes
and we weren't allowed to use any curves. This was interesting to practise because
it made me notice how a lot of the body is made up of curves. I started a new
drawing only using straight lines. I made what seemed a very cubist figure that
was very different from the other I had done today.
With time up, I reflected on what I had done today. In a
short amount of time I had done several quick drawings, a long study in
charcoal, and a 50 minute study. I was happy with what I'd finished. I know I'm
improving and I can tell I'm getting a lot quicker with my drawings. It's only
8 weeks into the course, so I'm looking forward to seeing how much I will
improve over the coming months.
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