After all the craziness of getting work ready for my shows (‘Emergence’ at Gallery 8, Salt Spring Island and ‘Caught Red Handed’ at Martin Batchelor Gallery, Victoria), I was over on Salt Spring Island for a short visit with my Mum and Dad. Mum reminded me that it was Monday – life drawing day. Egads. I had no tools, I had no energy but amazingly I did have motivation. I borrowed a sketchbook from Mum and luckily I had three pieces of conte – black, sanguine, and white – in my bag. Then off we went.
Arriving slightly late, we missed the 1 minute sketches but were in our seats for the two minute ones. The session followed the usual progression from 1 minute to 2 minute poses followed by three 5 minute ones and two 10 minute poses and ending with two 20 min poses. Having not been to life drawing for, um, I don’t know how long, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I felt so rusty yet somehow I could still see and make a mark reflecting what I saw. Our model Christin was unfamiliar to me and she was just great!
There’s nothing quite like life drawing. It’s absolutely the best way to hone your drawing skills. You need to be aware of proportion, line, shading, perspective. You have to deal with lighting that often presents subtlety rather than obvious shadows that delineate the form. Life drawing gives you a chance to experiment. And with a group life drawing session, it’s fascinating to see how other artists interpret the same model.
So if you want to improve your drawing skills, get thee to a life drawing session!
It’s Sunday, 15th June, so a great big Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful Dad and to all those fathers out there!! To have a look at what fathers and their children look like in art, check out my blog from last year by clicking here.
Do you go to life drawing? Do you find drawing the figure as challenging as I do? I’d love to hear from you!!
Until next time,
~ Gail
PS. I came across this blog with some wonderful ads portraying today’s Dad. Be prepared to awwwwwww and maybe even shed a tear at the heart warming depictions. My favourites are #1, 3, and 4.
2 thoughts on “Life drawing – what a joy!”
Sometimes limited palette yields great results. I really love life drawing too. I am in the “Stark” Naked Show at Harcourt House which opens this Thursday. My favorite times are one and two minutes. Thirty seconds and continuous flow are great for warmups…
Yes I too love the shorter poses. My favourites are one and two minutes and then 10 min ones. I have only ever done continuous flow poses once before at a different life drawing place. It was very strange but once I figured out what was going on I enjoyed the experience. Love the name of the show you are in!