Second update from my life drawing class; this week we continued the tone theme. For the first two sketches we covered a sheet of paper in charcoal, and used a rubber to introduce lighter tones (first 30 mins, second 20mins):
For the final sketch of the session, we crushed the charcoal into a dust and painted it on with fingers (approx 20 minutes):
One more sketch from me - this I actually did do today! A ballet dancer from photographic reference:
That’s all for now.
Andy
Hi…Andy…
A real pleasure going through your thread…lots of hard work , great studies,…and progress…:applause:
Looking forward to seeing more…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
Strong efforts here! I think the main thing is to loosen up your grip on the drawing medium a bit and allow the form to breathe while retaining control of the media. Try just practicing on a page a number of random, calligraphic marks just to sort of loosen up a bit before drawing. When cross hatching, try not to cross hatch for cross - hatching sake - really try hard to determine the topology of the form, and shade according to it. Another way to analyze form is to look for shadow shapes and to draw according to them. The key is to keep things loose but to maintain control over your strokes. Just takes a lot of practice - and looking at master drawings, which contain all of the answers.
Glen: Thanks for your comment!
Rebeccak: You sound a bit like my life drawing tutor (it’s a good thing 
) - I tend to tighten up far too quickly on drawings, which can cause me problems with speed (I start drawing very slowley) and with accuracy… loosening up is the way forward, and i’ve noticed a difference in the way I work when I do manage to do it successfully.
–
I’ve been attempting a few sketches from my imagination (trying to put all these figure studies to use!) and thought i’d have a go at working one up digitally. This idea is a wip for a fallen angel, making a last grasp at her falling halo. I haven’t decided on attire, or whether she will remain ‘as is’ - I wanted to get the figure correct proportionally first though, and any suggestions on how to improve this before I get too much further ahead would be most welcome:
Cheers,
Andy
Hi Andy,
Lol at sounding like your instructor. I like the torso a lot but think the legs are looking small at this point. Also you might want to redraw the hand as that is flattening out a bit.
It’s funny because I remember in college when I was first able to do some imaginational drawings. It was a thrill, I could finally begin to put down on the page what I had in my head. Glad to see that you have started to do that as well.
Hey Andy,
about loosening up…
try to really REALLY set your mind to “expecting zero quality mode” before drawing.
a classmate of me has the same issue (I used to as well). The problem is when you make 2, 3 parts of a drawing well (spending a lot of time on it) that there might be fear to screw things up, which I think is a bad thing because it locks up your spontane creativity.
it is something to work at that doesn’t go away over night, but when you keep at it all the sudden you will realise at some point in the past you will have made a mental click… to realize that is a very nice feeling of freedom. And that is a nice goal to strive for don’t you agree?
Rebeccak: Thanks for the advice. I’d figured her right calf was a bit short; but once i’d lengthened that, both the right thigh and left leg looked disproportionate and I could see how it was all a bit out - always more to work on! Hadn’t spotted the hand either.
NR43: I think you really hit the nail on the head:
try to really REALLY set your mind to “expecting zero quality mode” before drawing.
I have to agree, that feeling of freedom to just start getting marks on the page and build up an idea is distracted by the nagging voice saying that each drawing has to be perfect…
–
Updated proportions:
Gord: Cheers for stopping by!
–
Another week, another life drawing class. This first sheet are my warm up sketches; I thought i’d try and be a bit more spontanious and not quite so measured with my mark making this time. Each pose was about 7 minutes, for the left and central figures I used chalk, and for the one on the right oil pastel:
This last pose was about 45 minutes, using chalks - hip/thigh areas look a little big in retrospect:
Andy
Good to see your new sketches! I cannot recommend enough doing charcoal master copies from drawings by artists like Rubens and Michelangelo, I think it will help enormously when you go to draw from the live figure.
It’s been a while since I really posted anything here; should really get back on track… I’ve still been attnding my life drawing class. We have less than ten weeks to go now - I’m starting to wonder where all the time went!
Here are a couple of sketches from two weeks ago - both took about an hour, using coloured chalks on a mid-tone paper:
…and from this weeks class; the first page has two 30 minute sketches on it, the second was longer (about an hour) - again using chalks on a mid-tone paper:
Andy
I thought i’d post my preliminary sketches for this weeks character-a-fortnight challenge here. This pair on the first page were drawn from photographs, while the character on the second page is from my imagination:
This final sketch of an athlete is unrelated, and took me about an hour (again from a photo):
Cheers for looking in,
Andy
A couple of sketches from this weeks life drawing class; the first is coloured chalk on a mid-tone paper and took about an hour, while for the second I used white/black/light blue and took about 45 minutes.
Proportions and stuff are a little off, particularly on the first sketch, but i’m pleased with the amount of ground I covered in the timeframe to make the drawings look a bit more ‘completed’
Cheers,
Andy
Just the one piece of work from my life drawing class this week. We had a different tutor this time around; it was good to get a different insight and a fresh pair of eyes on our work.
This drawing is a combination of chalk and charcoal on white paper, and took about two hours:
So jealous of your life classes Andy!
But I will get my share in about 12-15 months time
(at least 2 years long, 4y if I choose so and this 2 long sessions per week)
The last one is really nice
Be careful not to use too much white… a subtile white does the trick 
NR43: Thanks for your comment; I’m really happy with that last one - although the picture doesn’t quite do it justice.
That two year, two sessions a week (even if it is still a way on the horizen) is a fantastic opportunity! I’ve done several shorter courses before - 6-12 weeks - and you only get so far. Having been on my current course since last September I can say that having regular, consistant instruction helps no end; both you and the tutors put more into it, and as a result you get much more out of it!
Andy
It’s been a while, so here’s three weeks worth of life drawing to catch up on. The first pair took approximatley 30 minutes each - this session I really struggled to get anything decent down; we all have off day’s I guess!
