24/9/12 Life Drawing

Today i attended my first Drawing, Drama and Design class. We were told in advance that we would be participating in 2 and a half hours of life drawing which i was really excited about, its different then drawing people on the train or in a cafe, probably because the model doesn't complain that i'm staring at her.

When we sat down we were told that we would do a range of exercises, the first couple of drawings would be quick 3 -5minute drawings, no shading, just line work. I felt it was a great warming up task, they were quick change poses which were high in contrast which meant that i got to get a feel for the models shape. From doing life drawing classes in my Foundation year, i find these first drawings to be really important, they get my brain warmed up for a good session. I wasn't particulary pleased with any of the work on the two pages above, nothing stands out or grabs my attention but it aim wasn't to create a masterpiece it was to warm up.

The next task was to do some larger more detailed drawings of the model, concentrating on her body shape and the proportions. We were told not to concentrate on the facial features as you can spend hours concentrating on a models face. We had 15 minutes to complete both of these drawings, i found these to be more enjoyable then the first task as we had more time to concentrate on what we were drawing. It also allowed Ron to see how we draw, our techniques and styles. Now i look back at the images i think i could have done better, the drawing to the right, the left arm on the model is too short and the elbow should come down slightly further, but maybe if there was some shading around the shoulders it would look more in proportion as the model had hunched shoulders, also i drew the models head slightly too small?

Once we finished the drawings we had a chat with Ron and he pointed out that we all spend too much time looking at what we are drawing rather then studying the model and using out eyes to draw. Therefore the next task was to spend 20 minutes drawing very slowly with out looking at the page (non-looking line drawing). The aim of the task was to make us understand the difference between drawing with out eyes and drawing with our brain, what we think should be drawing, and i actually really enjoyed the task. I have a photographic memory which makes it easier then other people to see things and remember angles which i feel works in my favour. I did look at my drawing but only when i had taken my pencil off of the page to see where i was. I tried to make it a one line drawing, apart from when i was looking at the drawing. I feel that when your not looking at the drawing its better to do it as a one line drawing as it helps you to navigate around the page, you can get a feel for when you had your markings etc. I am fairly pleased with the outcome, i would have preferred the drawing to have been a bit more erratic, but i'm quite a neat person and i drew very slowly making it difficult to create a more frantic obscure look. I think on the whole it would benefit me hugely to do more none looking drawing and be really strict about it, even going as far as blind folding myself so i'm not tempted.

The last task that we did was a series of drawings of the model from different points of views, all the class were sitting in a semicircle so we all moved seats clockwise around the room. The drawings create a 3D effect which animators use when designing a character to show all the different points of view their character can be seen from and all the detail that needs to be included. Unfortunately, due to the lack of common sense i drew the first four drawings too big so i couldn't fit the rest of the drawings on the same page. It was interesting to see how some of the angles has really subtle changes and others were more noticeable. It would have been more interesting to draw if the model had been standing up as most of the drawing the a chair draped in fabric.. However it was still interesting. In my foundation year i did some of these drawings and i also did a 3D model of one of my 2D characters to make sure that the dimensions of the character would work on screen. When i was drawing these drawings i was trying not to look at the paper too much to go along with the drawing with your eyes task. We also had limited time to draw each position so they were quick, basic line drawings.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first life drawing class and i am really excited to do the next life drawing class and in the mean time i shall be updating my blog with more drawings i have done with the techniques i have learnt.