Unit 5: Life Drawing Week 4

We continued working on portraying the movement of the model in this week's class, but instead of the usual warm up sketches we did a series of 1 minute sketches focusing on the movement from one key pose to another, so we ended up with 8 drawings. We then moved on to trying to capture the movement changes into each of the 8 poses and then tried to create a montage like overlay of images to show the movement of the model's action.

1 minute sketches of 8 related poses.

Movement between poses- the fabric was great to capture this.

Pose overlays, I used different mediums so that the poses could still be seen. Pitty I got a bit carried away with the first one and went off the page before the model had stopped posing!

Unit 5: Life Drawing Week 3

This week in life drawing we were focusing on showing the movement of the model in our sketches, we started off with the usual 2 minute warm ups but then also did quick 1 minute sketches where we were supposed to focus on the action rather than the detail of the model.

2 minute warm ups

1 minute action poses

Stationary model with small movement of sweeping floor

Model walking from right to left, tried to create a walk cycle type movement in my drawing.

A mixture of poses and this time I tried to overlap the drawings a bit like when we draw on animation paper and can see multiple sheets under each other.

Unit 5 Life Drawing: Week 2

This week's life drawing we continued with drawing the model in behaviours we had chosen from the blue box but not just drawing her posed, actually using the way we draw her to express the behaviour. It was a good session where we did four behaviours in pairs contrasting each other.

2 minute warm up poses, getting quicker at this but still not quick enough which means I have a 1 armed or legged sketch!

3 12-20 minute drawings of behaviours

Final behaviour drawing, I tried to make the last one the biggest and it was also the longest.



Unit 5 Life Drawing: Week 1

For this week's life drawing we focused on behaviour/mood of the model using some of the behaviours we had got at the briefing. It was really helpful and interesting trying to express these moods in our drawings and it really got me concentrating on the mood more rather than the figure proportions.

2 minute warm up poses.

3 12 minute behaviour poses where I experimented with exaggerated brushstrokes and lots of marks, square shape to get the mood across.

This one was the hardest to get across because I happened to be behind the model and the mood that she was portraying is better seen from the front but I think I managed to capture it quite well.



Unit 4: Life Drawing (2)

This week in life drawing we continued working on foreshortening, but with a difference. We would pick an element of the model and draw it really large on the page and then foreshorten the rest of her off of the page smaller to have emphasis on the focal part. Photography came up a lot in this session and how it focuses on something big and makes things in the background blurry and smaller.

2 minute warm up sketches.

 I picked the model's hand to make really large and tried to make the torso of her body smaller in comparison.

This one is a really strange drawing, again I tried to make the hand really big, it was weird working at this angle, the hand was at a weird angle too but the arm does get a bit smaller as you get higher on the page.

This is my favourite of the foreshortening for this week, there's this massive chunky arm in the left foregroun and then the torso and legs going off in the distance.

Life Drawing Returns!

Well life drawing was back this week, to be honest I was dreading getting back to it because it's been too long and thought my hand was rusty from not doing it, turns out I was wrong though! =) This week we focused on expressing the poses which was highly appropriate for this unit, also practicing foreshortening which I was really happy about because it's something I struggle with especially with the human figure.

Trying to show the expression of the pose rather than focusing on the figure details in some warm up sketches. Chris said that the model moves with elegance so it would do well to try and capture this.

Foreshadowing of the model lying down, I decided to sit on the floor and work on the easel from there. I actually felt better doing this and seemed to be more acurate so I think I will do this a lot more often. I was really pleased with this drawing because I think the foreshortening worked, the only issue is the detailed foot which I think is a bit too small.



Life Drawing: Week 12

This week we were pretty much allowed to do what we wanted but we had to do a tonal study as one drawing. For this drawing I focused on getting the tones down first as we weren't allowed to draw the outline. I blocked in shapes of tone then worked on top of them to make the form of the figure.

2 minute warm ups

Tonal Study

Pen study



Life Drawing: Week 11

This week was back to proportions and measuring but with a difference, focusing mostly on the shadows and tones within the figure. We started off with the usual 2 minute warm up sketches then went on to experiment with showing the shadow using whatever material we wanted and could get our hands on.

I decided to cover my piece of paper with charcoal and work on top of that to express the shadows. I do like the effect but next time I want to try the covering then rubbing on more rather than adding an outline on parts so that they show up. Think it depends on the materials I had.

I then decided to experiment with pen, something I realised I hadn't yet used in life drawing. I wanted to look at drawing the actual shapes the shadows make with some hatching and I really liked the effect it created.

Life Drawing: Week 10

Life drawing this week was really good because we got to chose how we approached the drawing both in style and material. I chose to go for more proportional accurate drawing because I like working this way and have liked seeing myself improve in my figure drawing from week 1...big difference! I also got to use some of my perspective practice for the last drawing which was great! After a chat with Chris we both agreed that now I should focus on practicing drawing the face so that my figures feel complete. We also had two models at once which was interesting to draw.

Life Drawing: Week 9

Again this week we looked at the idea of negative space...but with a difference. We had to use what we had learnt about negative space and apply it to one detailed study of the model. So in a way you end up with both the positive and negative space. I especially found the use of negative space handy when measuring the distances of the spaces between the model's arm and torso and in between his knees.

I am really happy with what I achieved even though it would have been nice to have got down some more of the surroundings to really place the model.



Life Drawing: Week 8

More negative space for this week's life drawing and I actually think I'm getting the hang of it! Something our tutor said about imagining we were using photoshop and had applied the blur tool over the figure so that it was just space whereas, everything around it was still there in someway connected to the figure really clicked in my head and got me going.

2 minute warm ups

This one didn't come out very well and photoshop didn't like it so next week I think I need to push harder with my pencil, however I like the somewhat cog like shape in the middle, its as if they is another 'space' rather than just the figure.

I incorporated other figures in the background to form shapes for this one and quite like the effect.

I think this is my favourite one with the big block shapes and the circles in the easel popping out on the page.



Life Drawing: Week 7

This week we focused especially on negative space, this was something new to me in life drawing. Actually focusing on the space around the model as if the model isn't actually there, just a blank hole...strange for life drawing I thought but you do end up with a pretty interesting effect!

I think I definitely started off really nervous with how to approach it, but tried out a few different techniques such as rubbing out the space and blocking in shapes around the model. I think I started getting the hang of it, there is definitely a big difference between my first one and last!

2 Minute warm ups

First negative space attempt

Second attempt

Final attempt

Life Drawing: Week 6

This week we did some similar techniques that we have been doing already but took them a bit further with 'plotting points' in pencil of measurements then going in with the side of the charcoal and drawing in the form without ending up with loads of unneccessary lines everywhere.

2 Minute Sketches

30 Minute Proportion Drawing

Plotting Points Drawing

Life Drawing: Week 5

I am really starting to see an improvement in my life drawing and am really enjoying it because of this. I find the measuring technique especially useful!

2 Minute Drawings

30 Minute Full Figure Study

30 Minute Full Figure Study

More 2 Minute Drawings



Life Drawing: Week 4

This week's life drawing seemed to go really well as I was managing to get the proportions more accurate.
We started off with 2 minute sketches to loosen us up which I actually really enjoyed even though it is something I normally panic about and I think the poses and shape show quite well.

We then had to fit the figure onto the portrait sheet trying to get it proportionate to the sheet itself and keeping in mind the measurements of the figure. I liked doing this because I could see improvement with my measuring from last week and by the second image I had managed to speed up. Something I have noticed though is that the feet are too small!

The final drawing we had to do was more of a close up of the top half of the model's body and her face and I used charcoal to add tone and depth to the drawing.