Now, I say new… when what I suppose I mean is ‘I’m actually taking a class’. We never did life drawing at school, maybe one piece of portrait drawing (you know, the one you all do at school where you draw the kid who sits opposite you, then you pin them all on the wall and nobody can recognise each other!).
I decide to take a class because I was interested to see if I could actually do it. It’s a locally run class to where I live, so it’s also a great chance to meet new folk who are also artistic. I missed the first one, so this class was my first but 2/7 for nearly everyone else. I was hoping I hadn’t missed too much.
I’ve been drawing ‘figures’ for years… mainly for costume designs and ideas like that. This has all been done from memory and observation of biomechanical dimensions I’ve just noticed along the way in life. I’ve never had one of those little wooden models you position, I’ve just thought about what I’ve seen and drawn from memory. So, to draw from an actual person was going to be really interesting.
So, off I went… with an A3 sketchbook and some drawing bits and bobs… all excited and not having a clue what was going to be the outcome.
Our life drawing tutor is called Aine and she demonstrates along the way. There’s less time than you think when the class is only 2 hours and poses by a model only last between 5 and 30 minutes . You just pick it up and off you go.
Our first 2-3 sketches were exceptionally good fun. Now, I’ve never tried this before and so it was all new. We all put up some paper, got a piece of charcoal and stood so we could see the model but not the paper. Sketching a person blind… I thought it was going to turn out terribly! I put the charcoal on the paper, looked at the model and just went for it. We were allowed to look 3 times, and we had 5 minutes tops. At my first glance back at the paper I just started smiling. I couldn’t believe what I was drawing looked like a person, let alone actually resembled the model. Here’s one of the sketches I did…
5 minute blind sketch
I was amazed! Here’s another… one I’d tried the facial features too…
5 minute sketch with a face
Now that amazed me more! Not really looking, only a few glances to check I wasn’t going to wobble off the paper and to reposition the charcoal. I’ve always just left my figures with a blank where the face should be for fear of it going wrong… anyway… just this simple exercise gave me so much joy and a hefty dose of confidence.
Then Aine showed us some portraits she had drawn, demonstrated quickly with some mixed media and off we went again. This time we used a flesh toned gouache, watered-down black ink, white and flesh tone oil pastels and neat black ink with a sharpened stick. Now, not only have I not done portraits before but I’ve never done anything with this amount of mixed media either… so here’s the result…
Mixed media portrait
Stand at arm’s length when working, Aine said. It helps to get a better view of the subject while you carry on working. She also said to look for vertical and horizontal lines behind the model to help with positioning and angles. I drew in the rail behind the models head and noticed then that the shoulders weren’t as level as I’d originally drawn them in. Having altered them I found it gave the picture I was drawing a more realistic feel. You have to learn to draw what you actually see, not what you think should be there. Little realisations like that are very encouraging.
Lastly for the evening we did a final 25 minute pose. This was to be a full figure, not being afraid to fill the paper. It was a challenge for sure. Many times in my hobbyist drawing have I had an idea, only to have it ruined by discovering too late that I have started too close to the edge of the paper! This time I went back the to advice Aine had given me about horizontal and vertical references. The models hands were on the rail of the wall, and there was a deep skirting in view too. I drew them both in, and worked out my dimensions from those. I wasn’t sure if I’d get it right, but at least there would be some perspective I hoped.
The result was this… 25 minutes passes really quickly…
So, those were my first efforts in this class. We weren’t shy at the end, and let everyone else see what we’d been working at behind our easels. It was a great show, and it was nice to see everyone elses different personal styles and alternative perspectives of the model. It made me wish I’d had a different angle to work from in some ways, rather than just almost head on.
6 more classes to go, and this might have been beginners luck. More posts on how I’m getting on as I go.
aquacatt 
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