Life Drawing

This blog entry is rather late but I thought I better put up my efforts at the life drawing sessions we had a couple of weeks ago. During my Alevels I had done a series of life drawing lessons with a few different models and I really enjoyed being able to explore the way the body moves and sits. 

We began by doing five very quick drawings with ink applied with sticks and water to add small areas of shadow. I like the sketchy look of the figures even though they aren't very good I always looked forward to using this technique at Alevel. 

The second image is a 5 minute sketch using charcoal, it is quite a simple drawing with a few areas of shadow done by smudging the charcoal; I liked being challenged to make the model look as if he was really sat on a stall which I think I succeeded at. I then thought a little about the lighting, the spotlight was in front of him and the shadow reflects this being mainly round the side of the body and on the backdrop as if he is sat up against a wall. 

We finally did a 20 minute drawing where the model again was stood so I could explore how stance effects the way the weight sits. I am particularly proud of the proportions and shading in this sketch, the way the shadow of the arm sits on the back of the body. I also liked the shadow falling away from the figure along the floor; the life drawing teacher asked us to black out the whole of the background however as the lessons were to help us consider lighting for our body unit shoot I decided to shade it in this way.

Overall I found the lessons really helpful in considering the lighting for my shoot, however after looking more closely at the effects of harsh lighting on the body I have decided to create very soft lighting on my model probably using soft boxes on more than one light source.