Finishing up the Figure Sessions

As I mentioned in the previous post, this particular figure drawing was a four session drawing. That is four, three hour sessions for a total of 12 hours. We finished up our first long pose model drawing session Thursday afternoon. The first picture was taken after session three. We had to stop an hour early as the model was too tired to go on. We spent the last hour taking turns posing for our classmates and sketching.

The final picture is after the fourth and final session. The changes are very subtle. I was focusing mainly on getting the contours of the body right.

For some reason, the model kept moving around more than usual. I guess that goes with the territory. I believe our next model session will be longer. We are also working on a charcoal drawing of a plaster cast. I will have the pictures of that process for the next post as we have one more session to go on that one.
It is warming up weather-wise. My walks to school are quite pleasant at this time. When it gets hot I might be in a bit of trouble though as I don't take the heat very well! I can't believe we will only be here another five months. It goes by so very fast. We are already looking for a place to rent in Manzanita, OR. I will be continuing my studies on my own. I had planned to be in school for at least four years so I will take that same time to truly study and work before launching myself into the art world. I have very definite plans of what I want to paint and that will take quite a bit of skill. More than I have at the moment, so I am working hard!
Until next week, -Renee

Another New Week

This week was different from our first week as well. We are working on another bust with charcoal drawing. I don't have pictures of the drawing yet but it is a four session drawing. We have only had one session so far and I will take a picture of that before working on it again so I can show the progression. I do have pictures of the afternoon figure drawing sessions. It too is a four session drawing and we have done two sessions so far. Here is the first one:

An interesting young man. As you might be able to tell, his head is shaved except for a forelock. He also has several piercings and many tatoos. I must say he is very interesting to draw and seems like a sweet person. It is challenging to draw longer poses as the model takes a break every 20 minutes and a few days pass in between sessions. That means things move, sometimes a lot. I new challenge to learn for me.
Here is the second session. I should add here that each session is 3 hours long.

Things have changed a bit including some of my technique as that is a learning curve too. Input from the instructors can also make you change tactics. I have not drawn the stool he is sitting on yet but if you look close, you can see the beginnings of the foot rest. You might also notice I made his head bigger as it was definitely too small in the first session drawing. For addtional interest, I took a picture of our set-up during the break. This is sort of what it looks like when we work.

I am at the far end of this curve and you cannot see my easel. All of us students are working on this one from us first years to the fourth and beyond years so you will see different levels of skill and techniques. It is a wonderful way to work and I am going to miss it when we are finished this year.
At the moment, I am making more charcoal and enjoying the warm spring weather we are having. More to come next week, -Renee

Figure Drawing

This has been a very busy week. I am back at school and we started figure drawing. It feels good to be standing at an easel and moving around instead of sitting. We are doing mostly short poses this week to warm us up and get into the rhythm. Figure drawing is a progression. We start with short one minute poses, move to 2, 3, and 5 minute poses and then a couple of 10 minute poses. Thursday afternoon we did a 2 1/2 hour pose ( the model poses for 20 minutes at a time before taking a short 5 minute break so a 2 1/2 hour pose is broken up into 20 minute segments with the model taking the same pose after each break). So here is what a one minute pose/sketch looks like:

The most important factor that must be found first is the gesture. Without a good depiction of the gesture, perfect proportions and detail would not be relevant. You would have a pretty picture but it would look stiff and not realistic. As one can imagine, we work hard at capturing gesture and it isn't easy, at least, not for me at this point!
Here is a 3 minute pose:

At this time, we are working with charcoal on newsprint. This next pose is a 5 minute pose and I am starting to put in shadow:

This final pose is in charcoal on Canson Mi Tientes charcoal paper and is the 2 1/2 hour pose. Notice there is still very little detail as at this time I was also working on getting the proportions right. That is still a challenge for me, specially with the human figure.

Friday afternoon we were back to construction drawing but now of plaster busts. A challenging and exciting week all around. I really do like figure drawing so far.
On the home front, I have a new easel and have had to make room in my little room for it. I have been going through boxes and bins cleaning out and shifting things around. Today I managed to convince my husband to pose for me over an hour to get a bit more figure sketching in, and try out the new easel of course! Next week will be interesting, exciting, and challenging too. Until then, -Renee