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Wednesday 14 January 2015

Life Drawing 13.1.15

Pen, continuous line
Despite the horrible weather the first session of the year was a good one. It was a very small group but we did have a new face which is always good and once we'd got in out of the cold there was a good atmosphere. Our model Paul had some great poses for us and I really enjoyed drawing and produced some work I'm quite pleased with.

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

I'd had a stressful day and sometimes this leads to me finding it difficult to settle into my drawing but this evening I decided I was going to just forget about the day and enjoy the session. I was really looking forward to just drawing and I think because I was relaxed and not worried about the outcomes my drawings were much better. I've also been more or less keeping up with my daily drawing which makes a huge difference, being in practice means that not only is my drawing better but I'm more confident and so more relaxed too.

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

I love drawing, I find it both relaxing and inspiring. Drawing allows me to step back from things, look at things in a different way and, at its best, figure things out. I love the almost alchemical process of drawing a pen or pencil over a sheet of paper and creating an image of something, creating a form on a flat sheet of paper. I'm not interested in creating an exact representation, I'm interested in catching the idea of the thing that I'm drawing. One of the things that I love about continuous line is the movement it creates, it is easier to capture the rhythms of the body rather than the exact shapes, giving a sense of the life of the subject.

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

As usual I worked entirely in pen this session as I was comfortable in my drawing and enjoying the images I was creating. I made plenty of drawings that are not so good too but it's all part of the process. Some of the poses had some great foreshortening and I really enjoyed trying to capture the odd shapes that this creates, It is a good exercise in drawing what you see not what you think you see as it often looks quite unnatural but once you get those odd shapes on paper you realise that is how it looks.

Pen, looking more at shading

Pen, continuous line

Thinking about the session afterwards led me to think back to other life drawing sessions, right the way back to college and university. The classes that I attended at uni often used a lot of props and I was thinking about the pros and cons of this. In some ways it's good to have the space dressed up and for the model to have various accessories and props as it can create a whole different atmosphere and spark off new ideas. On the other hand I really like the immediacy of just having the model to draw, with nothing else to distract my attention. Like most things I think probably a mixture of both is best, maybe I will add a few bits and pieces for the next session...

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