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By Timothy Piotrowski, January 21, 2010 10:19 am

Here are some drawings from last night’s drawing group. The group is taking off it seems. Others are stepping up and offering to help run sessions, and start sessions of different days once a month. It’s great.

Part of learning is observation of what you are doing. In the drawing below, I was going along, somewhat pleased at what I was getting. Then I got to the area circled in red. I realized that the negative space outside the body in my drawing was at least twice as big as what I was actually seeing (The yellow area).

What it comes down to, my proportions for most of the drawing were way off. It happens. It’s why good artists draw all the time. You aren’t always going to be perfect, you don’t always get it right. Heck even the two drawings above are 100% correct. Maybe 80%. Models shift, you make one area a little to big, you forget to have some outside reference point.

It’s the ability to look and evaluate your work, that helps someone improve.

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By Timothy Piotrowski, January 14, 2010 5:47 am

Last night we picked up our figure drawing group after a few weeks hiatus because of those pesky holidays. It was good to draw the figure again, though I did feel a bit rusty, and I wasn’t digging on my pencil paper interaction. I felt my shorter sketches were far more successful then the longer poses.

It was also a new model, which takes a while to get used to. When you use the same model(s) over and over, you begin to learn their body. This model was very good, and she had a really great body to draw. She was quick to want to use props, and was happy to wear the mask Kristen brought, and grabbed a hula-hoop. Having props and objects to work with, allows you points of reference outside the body.

We are thinking of trying to expand the days the group meets, such as a Saturday session. It’s nice that the group is doing well and there is an interest in it.

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By Timothy Piotrowski, December 17, 2009 6:17 am

It’s Thursday morning, so that means figure drawing. This is the last for the year, we won’t be having any sessions during the holidays, and the first week of January, I’ll be in Boston. There will still be art posted. Just not figure drawing.

We tried something new this week, a 5 minute pose, where the model picks a pose, and every 5 seconds, changes the pose slightly, by moving an arm or a leg, so there is something similar from pose to pose. It’s an interesting exercise, and I recommend trying it. However, I’m not posting anything from that, while interesting to do, it’s not as interesting to look at.

I started going to the drawing group back in April of 2009. Back then it was every two weeks, and eventually it went up to once a week. While you should try and draw every day, even once a week figure drawing makes a noticeable difference. As seen as below.

The knee and leg on the left side are so over worked. What is there is what I saw, but my execution of it wasn’t correct. The proportions are good in both, but I know, it was a lot more work to get them in on the left. There was a lot more sketch in, take out, adjust. I have my own list of things to focus on and to learn, such as facial features/expressions, hands and feet. How lighting works on the body.  I’ve definitely seen an improvement in those areas. When learning to draw the figure, it’s a natural reaction to try and avoid drawing hands and feet, but if you do, how are you ever going to draw them correctly? The solution, draw the figure big enough so that feet don’t fit on the page! Uh, no. Learn to fit the figure on the page.

Between then and now, I’ve changed the way I hold my pencil.

The suggestion came from my friend Marc, who is an amazing artist. It’s something I’ve read in books and knew was a better way to hold your drawing tool. I just never really done it. The way you normally hold a pencil is a very natural way to hold it. But holding it the other way, quickly becomes as natural. It also gives you a wider range of movement, and the ability to make bold lines, fine lines, shading just about any mark you need to make.

During the break, I talked with the other group organizer, Kristen. The subject was, when do you stop having to measure out like you learned in school, when does it become automatic. I doubt it ever does. Oh you probably get really good and make less mistakes along the way. There are always adjustments. I passed on the advice from Marc to Kristen, about how to hold your pencil. Because it really does make a difference in what you can do. I can’t remember if I was ever told this when I was in art school.

And getting used to holding your pencil like this doesn’t take much time at all.

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By Timothy Piotrowski, December 10, 2009 11:00 am

After a two week break, we got our figure drawing back on last night. At first, I just wasn’t hitting it. It was a new model, so I wasn’t as familiar with her body as I was with past models. It might have been that it’s been two weeks since the last session, even though I’ve been doing drawing and such at home. But the final pose, which we gave a hour for, I felt I really got the form down, though I wish I had paid more attention to the stairs and surroundings in my drawing, I feel I crapped them out.

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By Timothy Piotrowski, November 19, 2009 7:16 am

It’s Thursday, so that means last night I was at my weekly figure drawing group. We used a new space last night, which was a combination studio/living area for several people, so it was very eclectic, 100% awesome. Wanna see? Of course I took a pano of the space!

Click to see larger

I felt it was a very good session for me. I focused more on cleaner lines, more confidence in when I make my marks. I think it really paid off. I feel I’m getting better proportions, and more in. I bought a bigger sketchbook, so I’m not cutting off hands and feet so much. If I have one rule during these sessions, it’s to NOT cop out on the hands and feets and heads.

So, if you find your normal drawing size doesn’t work with the sketch book you have, get a larger one. Mine is a little larger then a laptop, and it fits into my backpack. Finding the tools and materials that you feel work well for you is so important.

And now, some drawings, click to enlarge:

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By Timothy Piotrowski, November 12, 2009 9:33 am

Yesterday was Wednesday, which means more figure drawing! Next week might be our last time in the space we use for December, as the owner will be traveling during that time. So we are already looking for a new space. Last night we had the largest group so far, 12-13 people. So it would be great to try and keep this going, since we are building a very nice group of people.

My friend Marc, encouraged me to try sketching a different way, to break out of my mold and habits, and push myself. Namely, to not be so scribbly with my lines, but to draw the shape in one line. First, you get more drawing in, since you aren’t spending all this time on line.

It’s something I’m working towards, not belaboring the work. I’m not looking for perfection mind you. But I do want to be able to draw what I want, and not overwork it. To that effect, I’m going to apply some advice I tell people who ask me, how do you draw? You practice. Just like you learned to write letters and numbers, drawing is similar. You must practice. You must train your hand to do what you want it to. That’s the simplisty of it, I think. Yes there are a lot of other factors, but I honestly think that is the basic concept.

So here are two sketches from last night, and the long 40 minute pose.

10 minute sketches.

40 minuge pose

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By Timothy Piotrowski, November 5, 2009 8:28 am

Last night was a very good night for drawing, at my weekly figure drawing group. I’m really happy with the progress I’m making. I would like to increase the number of times a week I go to a figure drawing group, and I’ve found several others that I’m going to start checking out. It helps when you have a good model, and Shawna (I think that’s her name) was great. She does very good poses, she brought props, such as little crystal globes, scarfs and fun hats. And she does something with puppets, I will have to find out what, and if she does puppet shows.

Two ten minute sketches. I liked the proportions I got, with minimal correcting.

Five minute drawings

This 20 minute drawing was my favorite last night. I just wanted to capture her with the scarf around her head, and I think I manged to do just that.

I will admit upfront, I tweaked this in Photoshop. The drawing came out fine, but I was having trouble with the interaction between pencil and paper. The paper is some what smooth, and I'll lightly sand it, to give it some texture, and then tone the page. I've done it on previous drawings, so I can have more depth. So what you see is what I intended, but the materials didn't execute as well as I hoped, so I'm going to have to find some pencils that work well on this paper. I'm using a single sketch book for the longer poses, so I don't want to start a new book for that, till I've filled this one.

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By Timothy Piotrowski, October 29, 2009 6:43 am

(Click to enlarge) This is an 80 minute drawing, from the drawing group I attend weekly. The pose was done over two weeks, 40 minutes each session. I’m very happy with the drawing. My figure drawing skills have improved over the course of attending this group.

Where I’ve seen improvement is getting the proportions closer to what they should be. Sketching faster, but more accurately. Planning out what I’m going to do, and trying not to get to bogged down in details, trying to get certain things right.

The longer drawings I’ve been doing in a single sketchbook only for the longer drawings, so I can monitor my progress over time. When working towards a goal, it’s important to have a way to measure your progress. (As a side note, the inside cover, I’m filling with a pen drawing of a crowd, just for fun)

I so recommend finding a drawing group (not just figure) if you want to improve your drawing skills. It’s similar to how you learn to make letters. Or at least I did. Each day, we would practice our handwriting. And eventually our letters looked like what they should.

I’m setting a goal of at least an hour of drawing each day. Which right now, in between temp jobs, will be possible. Because rather then just have once a week where I know I will be drawing, I have the time to draw every single day.

I will be posting those here.

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By Timothy Piotrowski, October 19, 2009 9:20 am

I go to a figure drawing group which is held once a week. It’s a good drawing exercise, and it’s also a good time to interact with other artists. The space we meet in is huge and very nice, so it gives us plenty of room to have the model do a lot of dramatic poses.

People work in all sorts of medium, paint, pencil, charcoal, iPhone, digital and I think last time, someone did some really great drawings using Sharpies.

The space, taken with my iPhone, using the Pano app.

Here are some of the drawings I did from the last session. If you are an artist in the New York area, this group is located in Brooklyn, and is a great group.