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.
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:
Some times, trying to draw every day, is hard because you think, what to draw. I could certainly draw my husband every night, as he watches tv or reads, or catches up with people on Bookface.
But one thing I seldom do, is find photo references and work from that. See, for some reason, it’s taken me a long time to work that into my workflow process. And it’s a concept I fully understand. it’s not so much about copying, but having a reference source for what you are drawing. Lets say you need to draw an old wrinkly women. You can sit there, trying to visualize what wrinkles on a face look like, or just go find some examples and ta da! Thank you google images.
So, I also play Dungeons and Dragons, and I thought, it would be fun to draw some of the people in the city where the players are currently living as a visual aid for the players. I had ideas on what they looked like in my head, and started sketching things down. And of course, when I wasn’t quite getting what I saw, or having to make a lot of changes, I thought, what a great time to go to the intrawebz, and find some reference material!
In one case, I liked the top half of the face for the drunk I wanted to draw, but I didn’t see him having a full beard. I found another face I liked the mouth and jaw, so quickly photoshopped them together, and I had a good reference for my drunk.
Here are the sketches.
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
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.
(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.
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.
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