Gesture Sketching

First things first. I finally remembered to take my camera with me and take a picture of the school, so here it is! The classes are held on the top floor with the bottom floor being dedicated to rooms for students to livet. I don't live here as I have a husband and dog with me and we wouldn't quite all fit.
I am doing an extra post here to show a bit of the gesture sketching we do on Friday mornings. The gesture sketching session always has a live model for us to draw. One week is a female model and the next week is a male model so we have a variety of shapes and forms. The session lasts three hours and we start of with one minute poses to warm up. It always seems like I just put my pencil on the page when the timer goes off. If you pause to scratch your nose or something, half the time is gone! The picture below is what I get with a one minute pose.
After several one minute poses, we move on to 3 minute, 5 minute, and finally 10 minute poses. Below is a 3 to 5 minute pose (I don't remember which it is).
The final picture below is of a 10 minute pose.
We have timed breaks during the session as it is physically demanding for both us and the model. It is a pleasure for me to draw from a live model. You really begin to appreciate the beauty of the human form in all its variations when you begin to draw it. At the moment, I have to say that Friday's gesture drawing session is my favorite time. It also gives us a break from the relentless intensity of drawing still life.
All the different years draw together at this time. It is always interesting to see what the more advanced students are making of the model. It is also encouraging as we know that we too will be able to draw like that eventually. Friday is the only time the first year students have to draw from a live model. That will be changing next semester when we have more model time (more model fees too!).
Off to post the results from this week's still life...
-Renee