Who knows what's on my mind

I’ve posted this a few times but really liked the typography on this one.

There was no life drawing session last week because of easter and I didn’t have time to photograph my sessions from the previsous weeks sessions. Again I believe I need more practice in drawing the figure. I haven’t been drawing every day but I’m slowly improving.

30 second sketches.

1 minute sketches.

2 minute sketches.

5 minute sketches.

10 minute sketches.

20 minute sketch.
I’m getting much better at drawing faces compared to two weeks ago, perhaps it’s the medium I’m using now (charcoal pencil):

From the February session. Eyes were a bit weird……

1 hour sketch.

As you can see foreshortening was a problem in this drawing. In reality the legs would be coming off the paper, because I was so obsessed with getting the entire figure on the page, well you can see what happened. The top half of him looks in proportion but the bottom half does not.

Another thing a fellow drawer pointed out was tone. He believes I use too much black rather than shades of grey. After reviewing my drawing from previous sessions I can see what he is talking about. I went out on the weekend and got different grades of charcoal pencil. I’m going to the next session on Thursday and hopefully will see some improvement.

Helpful to know.

Last Thursday, and guess what I did? Come on guess! That’s right I went to life drawing again!

Claire had returned to life drawing this week as a model, there was a good reason why she hadn’t been modelling for so long, she’s 6 months pregnant! A long time ago, when I first started life drawing (and suddenly quit) there was a pregnant model.

30 Second sketches.

1 minute sketches.

2 minute sketches.

5 minute sketches.

This one was done in a hurry after the 1 hour sketch. I got tired of doing it and decided to start drawing Claire’s face. I would have liked to have spent 20 minutes on it. Maybe next time

10 minute sketches.

1 hour sketch.

Again I think this one thing I have to work on is speed. I find myself unable to finish drawings within 10 minutes. My aim right now is to be able to draw a properly proportion person in under 20 minutes (including the face). Adding tone is something I can work on later.

I was a bit surprised I decided to go back to life drawing this week. I normally go every fortnight but lately I’ve been feeling the need to improve in drawing. If you are interested in Life Drawing and are in the Port Adelaide area on a Thursday night pop in to Active Art Studios.

I feel like I’ve improved a little on this session. I’ve stuck with charcoal even though I feel the medium is holding me back. There are many reasons why I’m using charcoal instead of pencil or paint. Charcoal is much easier to draw with (for me) than pencil. This time I’ve used compressed charcoal which is a little bit more controlled than willow. My hope is to eventually move on to pencil or conte.

30 second sketches.

1 minute sketches. I love using colour but I think I may go back to drawing the whole figure in balloons next time.

2 minute sketch. The head is pretty small compared to the rest of the body! I’m not great with quick sketches yet!

Another 2 minute sketch.

5 minute sketches!

Another 5 minute sketch. I’ve found myself getting slower as time goes on.

10 minute sketches. I was lucky enough to get a professional artist during the session to give some pointers.

10 minute sketch. I got a bit frustrated with drawing so decided to block the figure in pink……as you do.

1 hour + 5 minutes drawing.

Unlike in previous sessions where I had started a new drawing every 20 minutes I decided to stick with the one for the entire hour. I could see the benefits and frustrations when doing this. The legs are a bit strange, I couldn’t really define where his thigh started and his bottom ended. Obviously I haven’t gotten the hang of foreshortening yet. I was actually pretty happy with this drawing though. One of the other regulars who attend the session said he looked like superman. Which is what I was aiming for.

I feel when drawing I should be quicker than what I am now. Right now I’m just taking my time understanding the figure, but I want to get better at drawing! I decided not to shy away from faces with my drawings. The only way I will get better is by practising every chance I get.

Amazing talk from Bret Victor on inventing on principle. Well worth the watch if you have the spare hour.

So I finally decided to head back to life drawing after a long break. It was a mistake not to keep going with drawing from when I left off. I have been practising hands but not the figure itself, going back last Thursday was a bit of a shock to me. I don’t feel like I’ve gotten worse, but I don’t feel like I have improved. I’m always looking for that moment I had with this session, where I feel I’ve broken through some sort of invisible barrier. At that particular session I felt I was beginning to understand the mediums I was using and understanding the figure as a whole. That moment is there waiting for me again, I just have to work harder to get to it.

This session’s model was a male called Andrew. I haven’t really drawn males before apart from the first session, when the model had a very difficult figure. I don’t think I’ve made much progress in this session since it felt like I was starting out again.

30 Second poses. I quite enjoy working with colour.

1 minute poses.

5 minute poses. I believe the last one was the most successful out of this lot. I mapped out the figure in this pose and believe the proportions are almost correct.

I had a go at drawing faces. I’m not sure if I should be drawing faces at the moment because I’m still so new to drawing the figure. I often wonder if I should be concentrating on just the figure? But isn’t the face part of the figure as a whole?

The only 10 minute pose I managed to get.

As usual with these sessions there was a long pose at the end for an hour and a half. I like to start again every 20 minutes and see what I’ve missed. While this has been successful for me in the past, on this night I felt like ripping up almost everything I’ve drawn.

I’m beginning to think the materials I’m using are holding me back. Currently I only use willow charcoal and colour pastels. I’ve been using these because it was what I was most comfortable with. I think I need to explore different mediums such as conte and compressed charcoal to start with. I don’t know if this is good or not but I’ve noticed other people in the session use a range of materials with excellent results (even if they won’t admit it). I will probably try working with a range of mediums next Thursday instead of restricting myself to just one.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett

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