Figure Friday

Last life drawing session of the year...

Figure Friday

Short pose week this Friday. Lots of quickie views. Most not worth looking at...

Figure Friday

Life drawing. Short pose week...

Figure Friday

 Costume day....

 Gestures...

Shorter poses....

Longer poses...

Figure Friday -

Short pose day -

Trying to implement things I'm learning at the Atelier -  

- it's making for less-finished drawings, cuz there's lots of thinking going on....

Lovely model. He was fun to draw...

Figure Friday -

 Costume week - this time we had a full-fledged martial artist. :-)

 1-2 minute gestures....

 10 minutes.

40 minutes. Charcoal on paper.

Figure Friday - Workshop goodness!

The last weekend of this month TLCWorkshops is hosting Terese Nielsen who is teaching a fabulous looking figure-related workshop. I'm giving you a sneak peek into the assignment we'll be working on:

Idealized Realism and the Human Figure

The assignment for this weekend is to portray an iconic, idealized image of the essence or attitude of a chosen character. (This would be similar to what is assigned to an illustrator for an interior book illustration, character driven card art, or spot illustrations for a magazine or D&D manual.)

Your Task

Bring a’ bio’ to class of a character that you will depict from mid thigh or waist up. We're focusing on beauty/idealism so choose one (male/female) that you have an affinity for, and will provide the opportunity to portray attitude and charisma. (Think angels, gods/goddesses or characters from mythology). Bring a half page write-up about your character: no need to put your writers-hat on here, just notes and details about the character.

We will only be working on the drawing aspect of the illustration, which will include selecting appropriate, powerful reference, as well as shooting supplemental photos for costuming or hand and arm positions. The final drawing can be drawn entirely by hand or partially composed in Photoshop and printed if you wish to speed up the process of achieving a tight final tracing paper sketch. Keep your design iconic, without complicated backgrounds or surroundings. Select design elements and symbolism that are relevant and supportive to what the character is about.

Come play with us! There are just a couple of spots left.

Figure Friday - with music!

 Today we had a folk musician pose for us. He plays the tin whistle, harmonica and guitar....

 He played all of these instruments while we drew him...

 It's always an adventure drawing someone who's moving...

But on the plus side, he's an awesome musician - nothing like drawing to live music. :-)

Figure Friday

Very chilly life drawing today!

This was compounded by us being locked out of our studio (batteries dead in the number-pad combo lock). There were at least a dozen of us milling around waiting for the master key to arrive...

We finally got in and got to draw our layered costume model.

Fun, albeit abbreviated session.....

Figure Friday -

Last life drawing session of the year -

Looking forward to 2012!

Figure Friday - Historical drapery fun

 Had a really fun costumed model today for life drawing.

 Five minute poses.

 15 minutes (conte crayon).

20 minutes (conte crayon).

40 minutes (charcoal).

I think I'd rather draw big, froofy dresses than almost anything!

Figure Friday -

Short, short pose day -

Our model is this amazing modern dancer -

So the poses were unusual and interesting -

It's not easy capturing her grace and lyricism, but I gave it my best shot.

(30-seconds, 2 minutes, 5 mins and a 10).

Figure Friday -

 Long pose day... Model was lyrical - my gestures not so much (kept trying though...)

Hmph... anyway...

Figure Friday

 Short pose day (2 and 5 minutes..)

(10 and 20 minutes... charcoal on newsprint.)

Figure Friday -

 1-minute gestures..

 Left - 20 minutes, right - 40 minutes.

About 40 minutes - conte on smooth newsprint.

Figure Friday -

Couldn't post yesterday as my computer was all disconnected and in the process of moving from old studio to new studio...  Had a fun costumed model to draw this time (although it was a bit hard trying to get all that coat detail in!)

 1-2 minute gestures...

 5 minute-

20 minutes -

About an hour....

Figure Friday - Back to Life Drawing

Starting Life Drawing back up again this week -

(after our summer hiatus, I felt pretty darn rusty, but it was nice getting back into it again).

Our model wore beach-wear as a last hurrah to summer (and ironically, it was probably the warmest day we've had yet this year). Listened to lots of Beach Boys and Isreal Kamamawiwo'ole for ambience. :-)

(my photo of my final version here is really tilted - but you get a better idea of angle above).

Charcoal on smooth newsprint, about an hour.