Life Drawing

Without Looking

In our first life drawing session we experimented with drawing the model without looking at the paper, this is the one i did with my right hand which is my drawing hand and feel that it as come out awful. Everything is just so out of proportion and do not believed it helped when i took my charcoal over the page as i lost track of where i was several times.

Not Looking (Right Hand)

(84mm x 59mm)

My left handed one is surprisingly better than the right and I feel that perhaps this could be to do with being less in control, my marks are a lot more soft and sketchy which could be related to being unsure of how to approach this.

Not Looking (Left Hand)

(84mm x 59mm)

I found this next one extremely funny as we had to drawing with both hands at the same time and the whole thing was just so hard to process I found myself focusing on just one hand at a time. This whole process of not knowing the outcome was a very strange yet exciting experience and the idea of this actually working in some cases amazes me.

Not Looking Faced Down (Both Hands)

(84mm x 59mm)

After looking back at all three I feel that there are some strong connections to cubism in the sense they are very shapely and you can't always figure out what is going on in the drawing. I also thing that the left handed one was the most successful as it appears very free and loose, I would consider trying this again in the future as it would a fun way of drawing because you truly could get frustrated if things go wrong.

Using My Feet

This was done with using my right foot to draw with charcoal in between my toes, again another weird experience. I only really managed to get a simple outline as the charcoal kept slipping out and feel that a thicker charcoal would of been better as i could get a good grip.

Drawing With Foot (Right Foot)

(84mm x 59mm)

This one I believe was a little more successful and I really think the hair has worked out rather well, it worked out better as i took a different approach to drawing with my foot. Instead of having the charcoal between my toes I broke the charcoal up and smudged the powder on the paper using my big toe. Also all in all i feel that having a combination of the two techniques works best as the first is good for outlines and dark shadows and the other is good for creating soft mid tones.

Drawing With Foot (Left Foot)

(84mm x 59mm)

For this task we were firstly asked to draw the model and after a few minutes we had to memorise the pose and try to draw from memory, not only that but we then had to switch drawings with another student and correct any mistakes they had made. We continued to do this a couple more times then were finally allowed to return to are own and make a few more adjustments.

Group Proportion Task

Group Drawing

(84mm x 59mm)

I found this task very useful in seeing where i could improve and where i was going wrong, as often you tend to draw what you think it should look like instead of what it actually looked like as i could not quite remember the whole pose.

Mark Making

For this task we had to use different marks to describe the texture of things and not to focus on adding detail, we just had to create a mark to describe a shape. I used smudged charcoal for the much sorter textures and rough pencil marks for more complex texture such as hair and scares in the wood.

Marks For Texture

(59mm x 84mm)

I believe that the floor and mattress worked out best but feel that i rushed the rest little and believe that it do not really show the true texture of thing in the background.

Tonal Work

For this we experimented with drawing with a rubber, rubbing out any highlights we could see on the model, this was all about being able to split various tones and shades into simple black and white images. We also did the reverse of this and just used charcoal on a white background, this time deciding on where all the solid colour should go to describe shadows.

Two Tones

(84mm x 59mm)

We then did a similar thing on larger scale but were also allowed to use black ink so that the charcoal now became mid tones. I enjoyed this technique of using a rubber to draw with and would very much liketo experiment with is idea more.

Tones 

(59mm x 84mm)

Accurate Marks

In this life drawing session we spent about an hour focusing on the model and trying to measure with our eyes the correct scale, proportions and perspective of everything. By drawing simple pencil marks we were able to change our minds easier until we were happy with the result. We tried a rate of technique such as, measuring with a pencil and our thumb to get scale and proportions, tilting the pencils on its side to get perspective and drawing shapes such as a triangle to get the nipples and navel in the correct place.

Right Proportions (Pencil)

(84mm x 59mm)

This task was truly a challenge especially when i am so new to life drawing as I only really started this year. Trying to do something like this can be extremely stressful and you easier become frustrated with yourself for not getting it 100% accurate.

Skeleton & Structure (Sketches)

After the accurate marks drawing we looked at drawing only the structure of the body with straight lines and were asked to image the inside of the human form, the skeleton. We moved on to the skeleton continuing to draw in charcoal an had to draw a couple of poses without taking the charcoal off the paper.

Skeleton & Structure Of The Body (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

I do not think I particularly enjoyed this as the whole thing seemed very science like to me and also a little sculpture like, which are two things I have never really been interested in.

5 Minutes - 2 Second (Sketches)

I found this whole process very exhilarating, we began by drawing 5 minute poses then slowly going down to 3 minutes, 1 minute and this continued till we were down to 2 seconds. In this time you had to look at the model and describe what you see, so when it came to 2 seconds you had to describe the body using less marks as there just was no time for detail. I think I ended up using just 3 - 5 mark as the model was changing poses so quickly, was finding it hard to keep up and my drawing became more and more expressive and abstract.

Minutes - Seconds 1 (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

Minutes - Seconds 2 (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

Minutes - Seconds 3 (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

Minutes - Seconds 4 (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

Minutes - Seconds 5 (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

Actually looking back at my drawings I like some of the quicker ones much more than the detailed ones, I think they are roughly about the 15 second drawings and they remind me of historic art such as cave paintings of people hunting or dancing.

My Outline (Mark Making)

In this session the class was split up into two groups so we could work at a must larger scale, the first thing my group did was quite a strange experience as we took turns laying down on paper as two people drew around us. We were then asked to fill in our outlines using numerous marks describing where we felt pain, had scars, any bones we had ever broken. In my drawing the black Ink refers to some sort of pain such as eczema, headaches...

My Outline (Pencil, Charcoal & Ink)

(84mm x 59mm)

At first I really did not think I would like this experiment as the whole idea of having people you hardly know draw around your body seemed a rather strange one. In the end its was not bad at all, the whole experience was quite funny and we could not believe we were actually doing this.

Bamboo Drawing (Charcoal & Ink)

This was so much fun to do, we were each given a bamboo stick and had to tape a piece of charcoal to the end. Drawing the life model by only holding the very end of the stick made the drawing a lot more loose and free. The lines you would end up with were completely unpredictable. I feel that this drawing was not very successful as I just could not seem to get the angles right and kept missing up.

Bamboo Life Drawing (Charcoal)

(59mm x 84mm)

The second one we did was taping a cotton bud to the bamboo and dipping it in ink which was very relaxing and turned out better than the charcoal drawing did. I also felt the whole process of drawing with ink like this reminds me of Chinese ink art, which is something to consider looking into in the future.

Bamboo Life Drawing (Ink) 

(59mm x 84mm)

I would love to do the bamboo and ink method again and would also like to work on this ink drawing more if possible, by adding shading and a little extra detail.