Life Drawing: Session 1

 I had my first life drawing class today. I had done life drawing before though it was a few years ago now and I also haven't used charcoal in an incredibly long time. Despite this i'm pretty happy with my drawings. The life model who we were supposed to be drawing couldn't make it today, so we drew each other. 

When drawing I found that I was using the stick of charcoal as a pencil rather than a stick of charcoal, and using the side of the stick to get a less dark and permanent line. I also for some reason didn't realise I could use a rubber instead of spreading the charcoal as thin as possible using my finger when a line didn't go to plan. But overall, I think I did okay with all the drawings I started with the drawing in the bottom right then, after that my shoulder started to really ache and I realised my focus started to really drift towards drawing the final drawing. Though, i'm pretty happy with the fact that all my drawings read well, I think it's pretty easy to work out the poses and perspectives in each drawing. Which i'm proud of.

For next time:

• The instructor said to use your thumb as a point of perspective and to work out the proportions of things.
• He said to use dots and light lines (with the side of the stick of charcoal) to place lines you can use as points of reference for parts of the body.
• Look for simplified shapes and forms in what your looking at.
• Try not to move much and when you look at the model pivot your body rather than neck.
• Position the easel so you don't have to move much to get the model into your line of sight.
• The horizon line is where your eyes level on the figure.
• Don't get too precious with your lines, draw over things if you need to. 
• Use the stick of charcoal to find the angled lines on the figure then transfer the angled charcoal to create guidelines in your drawings. 
• Use the side of the stick of charcoal to get light lines that you don't have to commit to.