Struggles with figures: Life drawing part 3

Having spent all day locked in the studio trying to catch up on some still life work and with rain and gales rattling the windows, I almost talked myself out of going to life class this week, but eventually reminded myself that at the very least I was going to fill a sketchbook (at the rate I'm now working on larger sheets, that may take some time).

I found it very difficult to settle this time, and my first couple of attempts definitely lacked a certain anything.

My first attempt took several attempts to get the mass of the right leg vaguely accurate, and I couldn't get to grips with the overall proportions. I also found the model's long hair really interrupted the lines of the neck and shoulders and made it far more difficult to get these correct.

The second attempt was a little better although I haven't really got the sense of her sitting on the block- she appears to be levitating slightly. I decided to change to larger paper for the next pose.

This was a lot better although I still fell into my usual trap of not getting the feet placed correctly. On the plus side, I managed not to fall off the page while fitting the model to the picture plane.

I was rather relieved to make a good fist of this fourth pose, although I now see as I write that the half hidden leg suggests a rather fatter shape than it should be. By this time I had also realised that the model's bone structure was showing clearly and that I should capitalise on this to describe the form of the body.

Everthing went downhill again with this one, though, while there are several parts which look pretty good they are all too disjointed or out of proportion to add up to a whole.

This second standing pose was also off, and I concentrated on getting the twist of the torso right.

The reclining pose which followed was one I should have liked to have a longer time for. I opted to work in white conte and charcoal to emphasise the tonal shapes on the foreshortened torso. I felt it was coming together quite well when I ran out of time!

I came similarly unstuck on the next pose, where I found it very difficult to get the bunched muscles in the bent knee, and spent too long trying to rectify this that the rest of the drawing suffered from inattention.

Consequently the hips are too wide, the arms too thin, the head misshapen- I could go on but I'm sure the reader can see the faults for themselves!

Finally, I rather liked this study of her back, but wished I had managed to fit it on the page as it is a really good pose which could be worked up into a painting.

Overall it was a rather frustrating night, although I was not the only one struggling to get into the flow. I felt that I could have got much more from it had I not been bogged down by trying to get the overall picture- and as a result I think I will concentrate on particular sections of the body next week if I find something particularly appealing or interesting, rather than always trying to draw the entire pose.

Life- but not as we know it... Life Drawing part 2

Having just recovered from a nasty bout of flu it was touch and go whether I was going to make life class this week, but I dragged my wooly head down there eventually. Still planning on using my sketchbook primarily, this week I chose to use a "sketching horse"- a plank bench with a support to hold the working surface up in front of you. (Note to self- next time take a cushion; they are not kind to buttocks!)

Our model this week was of a completely different build to the last, being more curvaceous, less muscled, and shorter in height, and it was interesting to apply the rules of proportion I'd (briefly) swotted up on.

Having got caught out as we started abruptly I seized what I thought was a sanguine pencil for the first study, only to find it was an Inktense red crayon, which although the point wore down quite quickly I thought in the end worked quite well. If anything the head is a little small though.

For the second pose I opted to use graphite- it turned out I hadn't brought a sanguine pencil- I didn't have too much problem with the outline but struggled to place the shadow along the spine correctly, something I was already attempting to rectify when the tutor pointed it out.

The third pose, standing, I remembered to draw a light guide for the divisions so my effort didn't have short legs. I had to keep looking at the compressed forearm muscles on the right arm, but as far as drawing what I saw, I couldn't see that I had made an error although they appear oversized in the drawing. I spent so long trying to fix this that I only briefly placed the head at the very end. I also made my usual error of not lenghtening the foreground leg enough although I was pleased that I had remembered to check the line of balance through the vertical.

On the fourth pose I changed to conte stick. This time there were no comments as my tutor passed by, so I guess I was on the right lines, although I'm not sure if I had drawn in the right foot at that point- I feel the foreshortening is a bit off. The face was a bit rushed too, but caught the angle of the tilted head.

We now had a reclining pose, and faced at first with the model's back view I had to think how best to start. I underestimated the lenght horizontally but did remember to let the leg go off the edge of the page instead of trying to fit it into the available space- I'm trying for accuracy at the moment: Picasso-esque distortions can come later! I used contour lines to build up some shading and model form, and overall was rather pleased with the end result.

We broke for a cuppa, during which I decided to have a go on some large sheets with charcoal, so I set myself up with a board and sugar paper ready for the off. Still perched on the "horse" I didn't really have room to support the larger board in portrait mode, so made the decision to crop and draw the upper torso only. I tried to use a more tonal approach once I had established the main shapes, so as to model the form although the electric lighting does make it difficult at night to see shadow as there are several overhead light sources. I've not been in this studio during the day to see the effect of the big north lights in the roof.

I stayed with charcoal for the next study, trying to use only tone, but added some white conte on the highlights to define the upper edges. The head turned out too small, and I rather misplaced the position of the chair back as it pushed into her back higher up from where I have drawn it. And yes, it was that small; the model did make a joking complaint about it when she got up.

Steve suddenly decided to spring a five minute pose on us so I quickly changed back to sketchbook and graphite and focussed on getting the lines down as accurately as possible. I found myself almost drawing without looking at the page, as I had all my concentration on the model and felt rather than saw the marks I was making. The further leg had a larger space visible underneath but I feel it is quite a successful drawing.

For the final pose that evening, I chose to use white conte and the red crayon I had used initially- I'm not entirely sure where this idea came from and I questioned my wisdom about five minutes in, when it was rather late to change. However in the final analysis it didn't turn out too badly; I felt I had caught the line of the back which had first leapt out at me, although once again the head is on the small side, and the near hand is not entirely correct.

It was useful to have done some pieces on a larger scale this week, while I remind myself that I need a good selelction in the sketchbook to submit later on, large paper is far more user friendly when making the big gestural marks that charcoal begs for. Once again I enjoyed the class and had the opportunity to speak to other people, and the highest praise was offered by the model herself who thought I had done some good drawings (we were in the foyer where I was spraying fixative) and said I should stick with it. So... more next week I guess...

Lost in Negative Space

Note- this exercise is severely out of sequence in the assignment; despite being a trained horticulturalist my ability to kill pot plants is legendary, so having found the perfect specimen I really needed to seize the moment.
On another note, my main camera has died and the photos here are taken on my back-up compact camera, apologies for the inferior quality.

Amid the instructions for this exercise was this rider: "you may need to add enough lines to make the image readable to the viewer". Well, I know a challenge when I see one so was determined to find a plant which would not require extra "readability". I finally settled on a schefflera, as it has plenty of gaps through the foliage and a complex and challenging shape where the leaves interlace. My initial outline was done in pencil and gone over with drawing pen. I drew in the back of the table to anchor the image to the frame.

Having achieved a reasonable image on my first attempt, I was itching to colour it in. I traced off a couple of outlines onto marker paper to play with. On the first of these, I began to fill in the negative spaces in black ink, starting with the internal shapes. When I ran out of these I realised that the way they were disposed across the page made for an interesting dynamic shape, so I opted not to fill in the remaining background. (Or maybe I've just been drawing too many shells; the shape is suggestive of the central spiral in a whelk)

Next I fetched out the markers and quckly chose a series of pastel shades to scrawl across the area of the plant, before shading the background in a darker tone.

By this time I was throughly enjoying chasing down the many design possibilities in the drawing, and began thinking in terms of printmaking; the silhouette would be equally adaptable as either linocut or silkscreen. I opted to draw a monochrome version cropped through with a trapezoid shape for the background; I was also exploring the lengths to which I could crop or abstract the image before it lost its readability.

I had slightly adapted the shape in this one to improve the line- I had removed the supporting bamboo stick and drew in the base of the stem to give a clean finish to the bottom.

A couple of days later, having had time to think up new approaches, I decided to abstract two sections onto a circle, layering them and applying tone to identify them. I drew my circle onto tracing paper and began with the top section, moving the frame around until I was happy with the intersection around the rim.
For the second layer, I moved the paper over the lower set of leaves and aligned it so that the stem section lined up with what was already drawn, as I didn't want a second stem showing. I changed to a brown drawing pen to be able to identify which lines belonged to which layer, even so it rapidly became a confusing mass of lines, and I had little choice but to colour it in to make visual sense again.

To avoid having outlines on the final version, I traced the design through to a flesh tinted card with an embossing tool, using enough pressure to give a clear outline which could be seen in raking light, before colouring it in.

Sadly the spare camera's software didn't like the colours I used, and the picture doesn't really show how well it worked. If I wasn't a total klutz with image software, I'd happily scan and mask it for flat areas of colour and the ability to try out lots of colourways in a shorter time span. However, I think a week is enough time spent on this exercise for now, and it's time to get back on track and find out where I put my half-finished stipple drawing...

Proportional Misrepresentation: Life Drawing part 1

Having finally got round to becoming a member of St Ives School of Painting, I really had no excuse to avoid life class any longer, and attended my first one last night. Arriving early, I had plenty of time to fiddle with easel, chair and trolley to find the best working position for the A3 sketchbook I had brought with me for a first go, as well as chatting to one or two of the other people there. I had packed a varied selection of media to use and opted to start with sanguine conte.

As the tutor rightly pointed out, I drew the shoulders too wide, and the arms too short in relation to each other. Actually I was relieved to have produced a humanoid shape, however inaccurate, as I consider myself to be particularly weak in drawing people and had fallen back on the line and negative shape exercises I have been working with on the still life assignments.

I changed to charcoal and attempted to model the form in tone, not easy as the fluorescent overhead lighting limited the amount of shadow/light contrast.

Although I caught the slope of the shoulders correctly, the width of the further collarbone is too great, and the upper arm too narrow. I had problems also with the foreshortened hand resting on the knee, and in hindsight I think the size of the head may be on the small side.

The next pose, standing this time, went from bad to worse. I concentrated too much on trying to catch the twist of the body and made the legs far too short. Once again the tutor came to my rescue and showed me that the head-to-navel should be equal to the navel-to-feet measurement.



I attempted to correct the lenght of the legs (the original foot position can be seen) but the size of the head is too big- it only divides by five and a half times into the body.

For the fourth pose I opted to use a 6B pencil, and the reclining shape proved much easier to get to grips with, although I had to carefully consider the size of the nearest foot.

Overall I thought this was far more successful, although possibly the lower buttock is a little too rounded where it meets the podium surface.

We stopped for a tea break which gave me the opportunity to see some of what other people had been doing. One lady, an art teacher preparing for a project on movement relating to the Degas exhibition, had been working in neocolor, and the medium showed a really nice texture in her studies. The man next to me (I recognised him as an artist working in town) had inks set out, and I asked him what he was making marks with; they proved to be long thin willow sticks trimmed to either a point or nib, with which he was exploring the amount of control and unpredictability in the marks made.



After our break, the next pose was particularly challenging from where I was sat, and I found myself failing to observe the relative positions of feet and chair. I also omitted the right hand, as I ran out of time while attempting to correct the feet.

When faced with another standing pose, I attempted to construct a box and grid to ensure the shape fitted, however I still went wrong on the top half/bottom half split. I'm not sure whether my eye was thrown by looking up at the model, as she was on a surface a foot above the floor and I was seated. I've made a note to myself to try at least a couple of poses next week while standing at the easel.

For the final pose, I had turned the page and was preparing to start when a loose sheet of black paper fell out of my book, so I changed to white conte and concentrated on a tonal study (in negative). This I felt was the most successful of all my attempts this evening, and was a good motivation to return next week.

I enjoyed the class much more than I had expected. Most of the poses were 10 minutes, except for the reclining one which was held for 15 minutes, so it really forced me to concentrate on getting the likeness down (although without the panic which ensues when given only 5 or less minutes). The class tutor circulates frequently and offers helpful comments where needed; I had had the opportunity to tell him of my reasons for attending and that it was my first ever experience of drawing the nude. I'm rather looking forward to next week, although I need to make some reference notes about anatomical proportion and try to bear these in mind while I draw.

 On this first visit, I deliberately chose only to use my sketchbook while I adjusted to being outside my comfort zone in a completely new envirionment. Next time I will be working for at least some of the time on larger paper, and I may take a wider selection of media with me to experiment with, such as pastel pencils and oil crayon.