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...
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