Life Drawing class

On the 4th of October, I attended my second life drawing class. Prior to this, I’d only ever done one session back in year 12.

For this double page, our model held 5, 30-second poses. I had to work very quickly, focusing on the main lines of the body. Working so fast and so freely was amazing and I really like the outcome of these drawings. They feel so loose yet they flow so well. Though you might have to look a bit harder to distinguish the poses from each other, I love that they’re more thought-provoking than a detailed, lifelike image I could have created.

On the left, we had a longer pose so I drew the model twice, once with my left hand, once with my right hand. It was interesting and fun to draw with my non-dominant hand. Although the lines are shaky it was I loved to see how different the result was when I couldn’t be as precise as I wanted to be with my pencil. The picture on the right was a very quick, one minute sketch where I didn’t take my pencil off of the paper.  What I love about this one is the way the lines form shapes in relation to the human body; when I look at this piece, my eyes are drawn immediately to the left leg and knee, purely because of how the lines have created shapes that are not on the leg but work to convey the shape of a leg.

Above are two pieces I am not as fond of. In both drawings, I feel that I overworked the final outcome and could have stopped before I did. I prefer the piece on the left because it is simpler. The pen drawing on the right is nice but for some reason, I just don’t like it as much as everything else I produced. Next time while drawing with pen in a 15-minute session, I feel that I should let go of the idea that it must be a look-alike to the model, in order to get a final outcome that flows better.

This piece I spent around fifteen minutes on and is one of my favourites. During this second half of the life drawing session, the lights were shut off and the only things lighting the model were two lamps. I really took my time to explore not only the shape of the body but how the light was casting shadows on it as light play is something I’ve not delved into very much in the past.

All in all, I really really enjoyed this class and plan to go every week now if I can! Drawing from life is such a different experience from just using a reference photo. The lighting and shapes of the body are much more distinct in person and drawing in such a calm environment really immersed me. Everything I drew I’m very happy with and I can’t wait to draw more.

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