Introductory Figure Drawing

  This past weekend I signed up for an Introductory Workshop to Figure Drawing . It was very intense because this is normally a full two week course condensed into just two days. Add to that factor that I have never tried drawing a figure or person before and you have an approximation of my trepidation to going through with this class. Everyone said that drawing people is hard, so that always put me off. They were right! So here my drawings are just my first attempts. At the end of the weekend my trepidations were borne out: I have a lot to learn and will need reams of paper to practice on if ever I decide to go further in this direction. Having said that, I learned a lot which will help me later on in future life drawing sessions.

  Our teacher is a very experienced artist who is highly regarded locally. She simply wanted to teach too many things in two days. I think a three day workshop would have been that much better. In two short days there was too much information to take in and process. It was definitely a challenge and even if I know my drawings show my lack of experience, I tried to have fun.

  The first lesson was about measuring with a pencil and sighting the size of the head and fitting that proportion along the rest of the model's body. It is a rule of thumb that 7 1/2 heads will fit into the size of the average human. Our model was shorter, so our paper was then divided into 6 1/2 sections into which we had to fit our drawing. I found this very distracting. So then I tried to free hand the body shape. My drawings weren't any better, but they were easier to do.

   After that we learned to look for the negative shapes or empty spaces around the solid figure. I think we should have started with this lesson. Seeing the odd shapes in the circle of her arms created by placing her hands on her hips, or the inverted triangle of air between her legs, made it easier to draw just those edges of the model's body. Breaking the whole body down like this made it much easier to understand the relationship of proportions. This part of the lesson was lots of fun! After that, I think all of us felt a bit more confident and became more free in our drawings.

  Shading and adding values is what gives mass or free dimensionality to any drawing, whether it is a still life composition or a figure drawing. This is a part of drawing that I really enjoy. Once I got a rudimentary figure shape drawn onto my paper, I just took my time with the various tones and highlights. This was only possible when the model did longer poses for us. Longer poses are easier for the artist because we have more time to get things 'right'. For the model, longer poses are very difficult. Have you ever tried standing or sitting perfectly still in one position for twenty minutes at a time? Remember how impossible it was to keep from squirming? We gained an insight to the discipline and dedication that models must acquire to do this job well.

   The model was lying on her side. Her upper torso was interesting because gravity played a significant role in the shapes we saw. This depended too, on our angle of view. My view was full frontal as the platform was directly in front of me. Here, I tried to concentrate mostly on her right arm in relation to her breast. The darker shadows made this drawing really come to 'life' for me.

  Symmetry is another factor to think about and is harder to achieve than you might think. On organic forms such as flowers, trees and even fruit it is easier to fudge because who can say those shapes are perfect? On a person those shapes are not always perfect, but they at least have to look like a person. Unless you happen to be Picasso and then nothing has to look like it's supposed to! The right side is definitely off. This was also a shorter pose and therefore harder to draw.

  Our model for the second day was a very tall, very fit man. It was generally agreed that drawing a male model was a lot more difficult because of the harder edges compared to the softer, rounder shapes of a woman. All those super toned muscles were pleasing to look at but frustrating to draw! Add to that the shear dimension of our model who was 6' 8" posing on the platform and suddenly the room was too small for him, not to mention the size of our paper! Of course we had to fit our model to the paper, but we all had a harder time depicting the male body.

   The upper torso was easier to focus on.His legs went on forever but at least there is an idea of his stature in this drawing. I found getting the dimensions much harder to achieve. This drawing is sadly overworked and it shows because his chest really had more sculpted muscles than I manage to show here.

  By the middle of the second afternoon most of us were ready to wrap it up. Our brains  wouldn't process any more information and our drawings started to deteriorate. Then we had 'just one more' pose to draw. After we stopped groaning and griping, our task was to try drawing folds of clothing. Normally that is something I enjoy drawing, but I think my brain had turned to tofu at this point and I didn't accomplish this as well as I might have. The most interesting part was the juxtaposition of the folds of fabric to the folds on the model's neck. Perhaps more shading in the fabric folds might have made this a better drawing, but by then it was time to pack up our supplies.

  At the end of each day we assembled all the drawings on the floor to be critiqued. This is always a bit intimidating, especially if there are people in the class who are already professional artists, but it is also very valuable. We look at each drawing and we say what we think might have made it even better. Looking at other people's drawings and seeing how they did something provides as much insight into doing a technique as the teacher demonstrating it for us. The individual interpretation and innovations are truly inspiring. Maybe somewhere down the road I'll try Figure Drawing again.

Comments

[SandraT]

An intense couple of days, and you did great. I'm currently attending a weekly two hour evening class, a mix of professional and hobby artists, and most of us are pretty tired by the end of those two hours. I did a week long course of a few hours a day a year ago, and like you say, it's a lot to process in a short time. But it's all there, and over time you'll probably realise the benefits. You have great awareness in the way you describe.

[lindsay]

Your drawings are wonderful!

[Meinhild (inselfan54)]

Hallo Bonnie, vielen Dank für deinen Eintrag in meinem Blog. Dein Deutsch ist gut.
Ich finde deine life work shop Bilder gut. Mach weiter so.
Bis dann
Meinhild

[Ronell]

You did wonderful work on your first figure drawing class Bonny! An amazing amount of information you had to deal with in such a short time, that's almost superhuman!
Your shadings on the second drawings are really excellent. Congratulations on this. Now that the ice is broken, you can take it further, a step at a time. Keep going.
Ronell

[Margaret Hunt]

I think you are off to a fantastic start....Great job!

[teric]

Bonny, these are wonderful!! I think you have a real knack for figure drawing. The course sounds great albeit too intense.

[Lynn]

Well done, Bonny. Good for you for moving out of your comfort zone and tackling this. You're an inspiration.

[sandy]

These are fabulous "first times" you should be very proud!

[Casey]

It sounds like an intensive two days, no wonder you were exhausted by the time you got to fabric folds (I hate drawing them!)I'm really impressed with your shading work in particular - I hope you keep up with figure drawing. 2 or 3 hours of it a week is a lot easier on your brain.

[Felicity]

Bonny, your drawings are excellent! Really, with all that you had to take in, you did amazingly well. That much info in two days would give me a migraine, but I would think that once you start to process it at your own pace, you'll remember lots of useful things. I agree, looking for the negative spaces is probably the most useful tip as our brains keep overriding what we see and know about the human body.

[Jana Bouc]

It seems like you really did absorb quite a bit as your explanations make a lot of sense and show a good understanding of the concepts. Now it's just a matter of practice. Figure drawing in particular is endlessly fascinating and challenging for just the reasons you mention in your post. I think that's why so many artists just keep going to regular figure drawing groups in the same way musicians get together to practice their music with their bands. I thought you did a really nice job and your shading was terrific.

[Serena]

I think you should be very pleased with yourself, Bonny! You're off to a great start ~ :)

[Ujwala]

Great beginning and progress. Do make notes of all that you learnt as you might forget some of it that seems obvious now. I've just found out while looking at my college figure drawing pieces on proportions.

[Lydia Velarde]

Bonny I liked your drawings. It looks like when you had more time you got the roundness done so well!
Congratulations. I have been thinking of you...
Lydia

[Anita Davies]

Bonny I see nothing to be ashamed of in your first figure drawings and a whole lot to be proud of...You did wonderfully!
Well done!

[Lesley]

Hi Bonny, VISA has drop-in life workshops if you did want to do more of this - I think they are on Wednesdays and it's a $5 fee. I think you should be proud of yourself for the quality of your drawings; I know mine looked like rejects from a cartoon factory when I tried a figure! Keep up the great work!

[Laura]

Bonny, I think you made a very good start--it's hard for you to see, because you know how you wanted the drawings to look. Drawing the figure IS hard, but, like all things, you get better with practice. I would recommend finding a longer course to take, maybe once a week for several weeks or months. You'll be amazed at how much you'll improve. And learning to do this will help with all of your art. I know you already know this. Keep going, Bonny, you'll get there---you're already on the way!

[Sarah]

Hi Bonny - reading your post took me back to my first life w/shop - it is challenging at first, but it gets - not easier, exactly - but less intimidating and you start to remember everything. At least she was teaching you how - life classes where I live are so poor, including my college course - I'm thinking of running my own!

[lin]

Gracious Bonny, I applaud your doing this -- !! And you did so well! you really did!

I've been too fearful to even try this -- perspective is a major stumbling block for me .. as are faces ... to add human figures to that makes me quake in my boots! I am so proud of you for doing this .... and you should be proud of your work here!