Life Drawing 16.1.14

Pen, continuous line

Thursday was the first Life Drawing session of the year after a bit of a break over the festive season. It was really nice to see people again and to do some drawing, although I felt very out of practice. It is amazing how quickly you can fall out of the habit and I know my drawing was not up to standard. However, I don't mind as I know that once I get back into it it will improve again and I'm looking forward to developing my drawing further this year.

Water soluble graphite on prepared paper

I did quite a lot of work with my water soluble graphite this session but I wasn't happy with any of the results, however, it felt good to be drawing and as I said before with practice and time I will get 'get my eye in' and my drawing will improve again.

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

Having had a bit more time recently I was able to bring some prepared papers to this session-paper that I had previously worked on by adding poster paint, a bit of colour or newsprint to. I like working on prepared paper as it is a little less scary than a sheet of pure new paper, although sometimes if I really like a surface I've prepared and then do a drawing I'm not very happy with it can be a bit disappointing.

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

As ever I fell back on my tried and trusted pen drawings which I am becoming more and more confident with, I love the quality of line and the challenge of creating form using line rather than tone. One of the people who attends the sessions was telling me about a sculptor who drew with three biros taped together, I think this sounds like a great way of working and I am looking forward to trying it out next session.

Pen, continuous line

Life Drawing 9.5.13

Hand study, pen

To describe this session as quiet would at once be a truth and a lie. In terms of attendance it was almost silent; just myself, the model and one other but in terms of noise it was by far the loudest session I've ever run because in the main hall there was a drum workshop. Because of these things and a tiring day the dynamics of the session were quite different to usual and I found it difficult to concentrate and get into the drawing zone.

Continuous line

I can't claim to be happy with any of my drawings from this session; I used just about all the different media I had with me but nothing seemed to be working. Usually I can get into a drawing session once I get started but on this occasion I just couldn't. It is interesting how much one's state of mind affects drawing as normally I have no problem working in a noisy environment and our model, as ever, gave some great poses so I can't blame anyone but myself!

Continuous line

I did try super-size drawing though which was fun and I would like to try again when I'm more in the mood for it. I pinned 3 A1 sheets of paper to the wall and still didn't manage to stay on the page. It was awkward because I had my back to the model so had to keep twisting round which was uncomfortable and made getting the pose right very difficult, especially as it was quite an unusual pose. The proportions of the drawing aren't right and I'm not happy with the drawing but it is something I would like to explore further and find a way of making it work.

Huge drawing, mixed media

Next Thursday (16th May) I will be at Tullie House as part of the art gallery takeover. I'll be running creative life drawing sessions so if you're in the area come and check it out, it should be a lot of fun!

Pens on prepared paper