Friday Drawing Class No 4

Having had such a wonderful class last week, I struggled again this week.  Whereas last week we were doing observational drawing from a life model, I felt this time we progressed to interpretational drawing from a life model.  I can cope quite well with the exercises on how to make an interesting line, but I find it incredibly difficult to apply the exercises to drawing a real thing.  But this is part of my learning style, so I don't get upset about finding it difficult or not grasping the concept at first - I know that I will assimilate some of the information - it just takes me some time to do it.

Today we were drawing the whole of the life model - we had the wonderful Victoria again.  She is a fantastic model, and I am in awe of her ability to hold some difficult poses for up to 45 minutes.

I found it difficult to fit the whole of the image onto one page.  I have spent several years working in sketchbooks, where imagery can be much more interesting if only a section is drawn, so I kept forgetting to scale it appropriately.  And I did not have any glue with me to stick another bit of paper on when I needed extra space! 

Single line to describe a life model from the rear (the wonderful Victoria)

Single line to draw Victoria leaning forward

Life study using two imaginative lines
(yes, it really is only 2 lines, drawn from top to bottom)

Victoria kneeling, drawn using imaginative lines

In the afternoon, we moved to tonal studies.  We had exercises about how to convey the essence of the pose - which I attempted but did not really grasp the concept.  Victoria was told to stand in a static upright pose, where her weight fell through her body to her feet.  We had to draw her in a style that emphasised the weight. I tried drawing delicately at the top, and heavily at the feet using line and tonal variation, and it just did not work.  Michael tried to explain to me, then demonstrated what he meant by covering the drawing with a dense coat of charcoal over the whole drawing, lighter at the top, and denser at the bottom, obliterating most of the detail.  I'm still not sure about this effect giving the effect of weight.  I might have tried a heavy coat of charcoal moving from light to heavy on the background, but I don't quite get covering the whole drawing with charcoal, to give the effect of weight.  To me it gives the effect of hiding and obscuring the image, giving a feeling of concealment, not weight.  I'll reflect on it further.

As you can see, in the afternoon, none of the images came together particularly well.