Jumping into week two

It has been both a productive and expansive week. It was the first full week with my new schedule and it seems to be working out fine. I had a full day in the studio Monday on my own. Wednesday morning I took my dog to the dog park and got in a little gesture sketching before heading to the school for some afternoon studio time. The other days were full on instructional class. It seems like every day we go a little further and skills become stronger. The teacher never lets us get too comfortable though and keeps raising the bar. Here are two more of the still life exercises we did this week.


Again, a bit hard to see, the pencil marks are never very heavy nor are the drawings ever complete. We simply draw for three hours then stop, no matter where we are and move on to another one. We will have longer set ups soon I am told. In the top drawing I was in the process of re-adjusting the center when time ran out. We are starting to add shadows, much to my relief. The second drawing was undergoing a few adjustments as well when time was called. I must admit, the top drawing left me feeling like I had been beaten black and blue. My only comfort was that my fellow students looked like they were reeling along with me by the end.
Friday we had gesture sketching with a live model in the morning and construction drawing in the afternoon, again. Last week we had a male model and this week a female. The female model is a bit more challenging to draw as we ladies have a lot more curves. I also think the female body is more fun to draw for that reason. I forget with all our culture's focus on such a narrow (and unrealistic, literally) definition on what makes a so-called "beautiful' female form just how beautiful and graceful a real woman's female form really is. It was a pleasure to realize through sketching that yes, we women are beautiful in all our shapes and sizes and no matter what our age.
The best moment of the week came, believe it or not, during construction drawing. Construction drawing starts out with a subjective drawing, we draw what we see, then we add perspective to bring in some objectivity. I finally got this concept in a large Ah Ha moment. All of a sudden everything clicked and it all made sense. My drawing snapped into shape too. We are still drawing shapes but will apply this to objects next Friday. Here is my drawing. I didn't get a chance to finish all the corrections on it but you can get the idea,

Oh, I must add at this point, we don't use rulers but draw our lines free-hand, holding the pencil in the correct manner, which isn't the same way we hold a pencil to write with. I have already adjusted to this and it is automatic. I am already addicted to drawing with my lead holder too.
The hexagon was not exactly facing me square on but slightly turned. That added a nice challenge to getting the angles and planes just right.
The other tools we use at this point are a plumb line and a dowel or rod. Soon we will also be using mirrors to aid our precision.
In the midst of all of this, it is fun to take a break and look over at what the more advanced students are doing. Not that they have it any easier than we do. I see that it will be a struggle for quite a while. I am where I need to be so "it's all good' as a certain young friend of mine likes to say. That is it for this week. I am looking forward to next week. -Renee