Observational Drawing Artist Review: Lucian Freud

Ant Colony Sculpture

I saw this on Tumblr and though I didn't think much early on in the video, it certainly wowed me by the end. Opinions of the moral variety aside, it's definitely worth the watch!

Life Drawing: Part 2

Thursday started off badly with my taxi showing up at the wrong time. I paid the fare but sent them away in exchange for the right time. The correct time came and things were in motion, got to class, got everything set up and things were going good. We had to do quick poses, which meant quick drawing. I'm not the type of person that can easily stray away from my way of doing things but I found it quite fun to break away and do messy sketches in 15 seconds, the results weren't that terrible either (in my opinion) I felt like I was on a roll! We were then shown a method of how to measure body parts by using the head as a starting point. Plotting down points where a certain part should be, it sounded easy enough. Break then appeared out of nowhere; It had only felt like we'd been drawing for half an hour!

I got back to class and while nothing had changed, everything had changed. The momentum was gone and everything said prior to break was gone. I had a general idea of what to do and looking around the class, it seemed like everybody else was struggling with it too. I think some techniques work for people, while others don't. You won't necessarily pick it up right away on your first attempt! Still, a good learning experience. I can't work well standing, let alone using an Easel. It's uncomfortable and restrictive (for me, personally)

After that we tried some Indian Ink drawings. I had never used ink before and when I applied it to the paper, I found it had quite a nice result and good potential to be used in the future. We didn't have long to do these drawings, so it was a bit difficult to rush with a media I hadn't previously used. A second drawing was proposed and it was like I had never drawn in my life. 4 attempts and I gave up. I wasn't impressed. After that I was thankful it was time for dinner.

When we came back, a set up was arranged and our model got comfortable for a long pose. This actually went quite well, though when I had reached drawing the face, I had a lot of problems and found I wasted too much time trying to draw the curve of the brow and nose. I think overall the proportions were on the right track. I could of easily seen myself working on this piece for many many more hours but unfortunately we only had 3 hours of time and that resulted in the following unfinished-finished piece. I really wished we had more time, so I could get correct tones, add in the right amount of detailing and fix the bad areas.

Life Drawing

Today we had our first session of life drawing, which went surprisingly well. I felt that it was challenging because I'd never done it before and another reason was due to the fast pace we were told to work at. I personally draw very slowly and try to take my time getting things right, so working fast isn't something I'm comfortable with. 

The first thing we used was newsprint, which I find horrible to draw onto. I prefer paper that has a little bit of a grain to it. I strayed away from using my mechanical pencil and went for a 6B that was sharpened but not to a complete point. I didn't get to finish this due to having to go and sell Christmas Cards on our little stall. When I came back, we did overlapped drawings, which turned out a little better. 

The third drawing was set out with the model doing a pose and then stepping away. Using this method, we were told to imitate her pose and try to remember how she was standing. I know this was merely a test, but for me it didn't help and I found it quite irritating. My first lot of results were terrible, and I knew this before we were told to stop. Once the model had stepped back into place, I found myself trying to correct all of the mistakes I had made. I still didn't get it right but felt the sketch was on the right track. I think if I had more time, I would of been able to get somewhat closer to being accurate. 

Another issue was finding a good enough starting point. I first tried with the breasts and then moved onto the upper shoulders. This wasn't working for me and I found it more comfortable to start at the head and work my way down. On this drawing in particular, the arms and hand were giving me the most trouble, they always seemed to be off.

Hopefully next week we'll have longer to work on a drawing, though I suspect there will be a few exercises that don't work for my slower way of drawing. It's all good practice in the end though, I know even at this stage in my art-life, I won't turn into Da Vinci after 2 days!