Life Drawing: Changing Medium

I changed the medium I use at last night’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I’ve been using conté crayons but I switched to Caran d’Ache Neopastels. They’re so soft and buttery, gorgeous to use. I also changed the paper, preparing some vintage paper with a pale blue acrylic ground, which really complemented the pastels. These are 2 ten minute poses. I cropped the figure on the left as I don’t want to risk being censured for publishing a nude. There’s a much more prudish attitude to art than there was back in the heady early days of MySpace. Remember that?

Life Drawing: Over Compensating

This model has very large eyes and I’m struggling to get the proportions of her face right. This was the final drawing I did at last week’s life drawing session and although I think I got the eyes reasonably OK, I over-compensated by making the mouth and jawline bigger. I was drawing what I thought should be there not what was actually there!

Analysing…

I’m working with a new model at life drawing group, this is only the second session I’ve drawn her and I’m struggling to get a good likeness. I’m trying to analyse her features, but it’s not working out too well. She has exceptionally large eyes and I keep thinking my measurements are wrong. I’ll get there eventually and then I’ll wonder why I ever had a problem, but some faces are like that, very hard to draw at first.

Drawn in conté crayons onto heavyweight paper prepared with a green acrylic ground.

Sleepy Heat

The last of my life drawings from the other week when the heatwave was at it’s worst. The final pose for our model was a nice comfy lying-down one on some soft cushions. He had a bit of a doze, which is fine because he went above and beyond the call of duty by modelling during a heatwave. Life modelling isn’t easy in normal circumstances. I used white and sanguine conté crayons onto vintage paper prepared with an acryic ground in various greens.

Life Drawing: Blocky Outlines

I tried something different with this pose, using solid blocks of colour and very thick outlines, trying out a different style. I used black, sanguine and white conté crayons onto a heavily textured re-used paper prepared with a green acrylic ground.

#Caturday Archives:54

Here’s a digital drawing of Sparta Puss from September 2017. I was experimenting with a Markers app on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, getting used to it. I did a lot of digital drawings for a while, then I got bored with it and went back to analogue drawing.

Life Drawing: Mirrored Pose

At the life drawing session last night at Swansea Print Workshop, we had two mirrored poses of 15 minutes each. I enjoy these, it’s interesting to draw the same pose from a different angle. I used conté crayons in sanguine and black onto a smallish piece of vintage paper. What a difference a week makes. Last week we had a heatwave and our model needed fans blasting to cool him down, this week our model needed a heater.

Life Drawing: The Heatwave

It was very hot last Thursday at the life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop, the hottest day of the year so far and a bit of a record breaker. We were careful not to overload our model, having some sitting poses so he could rest. I have cropped this quite a lot because it might not get through censorship otherwise. The drawing is in black, sanguine and white conté crayon, onto a sheet of re-used paper prepared with a couple of layers of green acrylic silkscreen inks.

Life Drawing: Slightly Built

Our model at life drawing session last week is very slight and I sometimes find it difficult with slightly built people to get their proportions right. I’m quite buxom myself, so it’s a challenge to draw someone much thinner, I keep expecting to see fat where there isn’t any. The drawing is in black, sanguine and white conté crayon, onto a sheet of re-used paper prepared with a couple of layers of green acrylic silkscreen inks.

Life Drawing: A Portrait Sketch

Went to the life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop earlier in the week and I think for the first time ever, there was no need to switch on a heater because of the insane heatwave. In fact, our model had an electric fan to keep cool. I did a portrait sketch with black and white conté crayon, onto a sheet of re-used paper prepared with a couple of layers of green acrylic silkscreen inks. It’s a nice surface to draw onto and I like to get rid of the white paper, I find it intimidating.