The Longer Pose

My final drawing in this section is the longer pose and again I had some limitations as the model was in my life class and so I had one hour to complete the task.  I wasn't quite finished and I should have worked more quickly, I used conte crayon sanguine and I love the colour, I used the head as my measurement guide.

I also looked at the drawings of Antoine Watteau as he used red chalk for many of his drawings and the colour is soft and expressive.

Jean Antoine Watteau 1684-1721 Study of a woman seen from the back
Bridgeman Educational Library

Study of a nude woman by Jean Antoine Watteau
Bridgeman Educational Library
The first picture with the woman dressed and corsetted sitting erect due to her attire is in complete contrast to the nude woman curvacious and mobile showing movement and a different type of energy. 

Proportions: Exercise Quick Poses

I have never attempted Life Drawing so joining a class was exciting, intimidating and very challenging.  The main problem that I encountered was the lighting, it was overhead strip lighting so it was difficult to define the tone and work out where the main body of light came from.  I also had to fit my exercises around what the class had been set up to do which at times was a bit frustrating.  The hardest thing for me was the quick sketching as I am slow and to start with there was very little achieved  other than head and shoulders.  Eventually, I realised that I needed to simplify what I was looking at and began to look at angles and shapes and this was quite a turning point in my development.  I also realised the crucial importance of negative space and how that has helped me in finding proportion and form.
Quick Poses
These were two minute poses done from different positions.  These particular sketches I did with out much thinking about detail and the foreshortening was quite a revelation to me I suddenly realised when I used shape and negative space it worked.  I felt totally elated I had suddenly got it! The standing poses I tried to work out proportion and angles and used the head as a measurement.

I really enjoyed the foreshortening and on the two lying poses it was the first time that I have been sucessful in achieving this type of foreshortening I felt quite excited.
I continued with some 10min poses one or two were just over the 10mins and one was under and I have played about with various mediuns.
I started with a pen and ink drawing as I prefer this to black liner but it was quite difficult using this medium on an easel as the ink is flowing the wrong way. I used coloured ink to show tone.

I liked the simplistic effect but I feel I must be more open and freer in the drawing to make a more interesting picture.
The next sketch I did left handed and I was amazed how accurate the drawing was.  I have done one other left handed drawing in the past and again the likeness was good, my sons are dyslexic and it comes from my side of the family so whether this has a bearing on my left laterallity I do not know.  I have darkened the outline with my left hand so that it would stand out on the photograph.

I used charcoal in the next picture and my main criticism is that I took too long over the drawing, it looks laboured and I didn't fell confident in the drawing of the model.  I like charcoal very much and use it a lot in life drawing as it frees you up which I need to do to improve my drawing.

The next two sketches I did on black paper using pastels and I found that this was fun and quick I particularly like the cross legged pose as I just drew the pose as quickly as possible and blocked in tone with different colours not bothering about realism but shape.  It was surprising and not the usual way I approach my work.  I need to expand on this and not be so worried about mistakes or failures.

My final two pictures in this section one in oil pastels where again I have just experimented with colour and the other picture is pastel on pastelmat.

What I have learned from quick sketches is that I need to be more relaxed use my whole arm and try to concentrate on angles, gesture and be bolder with my mark making.



Project Structure

I have decided to jump to this section before I continue to do the other exercises because I have a real need to understand the anatomy and muscle structure of the body. I have the greatest of problems with this and so I have tackled it in my own way to gain maximum benefit from the assignment. I have started with the structure section as this makes more sense to me.  So I have begun drawing anatomical pictures and then tried drawing these areas from life studies, and as always looking at other artists studies has been invaluable and hopefully this will be demonstrated in my log.

I started with the bones of the hand as I have always had trouble drawing hands and I then drew my own hands and also tried foreshortening.

I have found this exercise very useful and so this has encouraged me to continue on the anatomy study drawings.  What I have gained so far is that the proportion of the hand and size is important, i.e. the palm of the hand is approximately the same length and width as the middle finger. This for me is quite a discovery as it has helped me to understand how to tackle hands and give consideration to the size of the palm which is roughly square in shape when the hand is open.
Encouraged and excited by the results I continued along the anatomy theme by drawing the bones of the feet and again I have drawn some foot studies from life and it is amazing whilst drawing I became aware of the structures giving form to the foot.  I also noticed that the medial ankle bone is slightly higher than the lateral ankle bone and this I try to remember and look for in my life drawing.

I then progressed to the shoulder and arm and this has particularly helped me draw studies at different angles because  the muscles are more defined than the bone structure.  With the drawing of feet and hands the boney prominances are more apparent where as with the arms and shoulder the muscle defines shape.

My next study was the pelvis and legs and it is important to understand that the positioning of the pelvic girdle in relation to weight distribution.  Whether walking or running the angle of the pelvis changes which has a knock on effect on the torso and shoulder girdle.

All the anatomy drawings have been copied from the Human Anatomy for Artists illustrated by Andras Szunyoghy and written by Dr. Gyorgy Feher published by Konemann 2006.  
I looked at some drawings by Leonardo da Vinci "The Graphic Work", by Frank Zollner and Johannes Nathan, and copied his studies of the muscles of the back.  I like the way he exagerated them which gives them a Grecian God like style.

 I am gaining so much from these studies that I shall continue drawing anatomical drawings to help me gain a better understanding of the form and shape of the human body.