Concentrate on FACES. I hate doing faces becuase it is so easy to make them look terrible. And it seems unfair to the life model to not do a good likeness (and it isn't possible to always do it - in fact it is mostly accidental in my case). So this week's model had quite a refined face with an arching nose but I have managed to make him look either sinister (according to my fellow students) or a blur. But at least the face is in.
Candid Arts Trust: open access sessions and more formal taught courses in both life drawing and painting. Behind Angel tube, Islington - first left down City Road. Contact: The Candid Arts Trust, 3 Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NQ, Tel: 020 7837 4237.
During class I had a long conversation with another student about what I am drawing when I am doing life - where do I start and what is my interest. Its a hard question because lots of the time life drawing is just a tool to enable you to draw - there are defined ideals, ways to achieve them and theory behind it all. However mostly in these classes I am trying to achieve a sense of flesh and bones, weightiness or muscle structure. This is achieved through line drawing and building up shadow (where the skill of drawing is employed - use of charcoal and its ability to be a line of a multitude of thicknesses and to be a mass of shading dark and light, to be delicate and heavy). When drawing the figure I am interested in the way it moves - stretches, muscles, limbs - how do they twist, how do you make it look realistic. How do you draw the figure to make it look like the weight is on one hip, or leaning on the hand? How do you get the bulk of the figure, or the tone of the figure. I was suprised by the amount of things I am trying to achieve with one of these drawings. I had never been asked before so had never really thought about it.
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