Life Drawing
February 5, 2008 at 9:25 am | In life drawing | 23 CommentsI’ve recently joined a life drawing co-op. It’s a group that’s been together for quite a while now, and I really only got in as a favor, so I quietly go along with what everyone else wants to do – which tends to be short poses. We usually start with 2 minute poses and move on to 5 minute poses. Once in a while there might be a 10 minute one.
I used to moan a lot about short poses, until I saw what Dee Farnsworth and Nina Johansson can do in a really short time, I’ve concluded that the problem rests squarely on my shoulders.
I haven’t been very happy with my figure drawing lately, and and have really been working on it, but I find that it’s difficult to apply new knowledge with the stressful situation of the model being right there in front of me. I felt ok abut the first session, but last week I was really pretty hopeless – partly because I’d brought the wrong tools.
Here are some of the better ones – looking at them here, it may be that in week 1 the light was more defined….
Week 1 – all five minute poses
Week 2 – this one was 10 minutes
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Casey you should be very happy with your figure drawings! I couldn’t anything like that in just a few minutes. Stop beating yourself up and just enjoy it … you’re doing fab!
Comment by Mithi — February 5, 2008 #
Casey,
I think these are amazing! Beautiful lines – very graceful bodies. Love the white shading. Don’t be so hard on yourself…. What type of pencils did you use? I just bound several beige-brown pieces of sketching paper in my new recycled watercolor book and want to try the same techniques with my nude figures.
Comment by Shirley — February 5, 2008 #
Girl – if these are bad I can’t wait to see good.
Comment by Mim Stella — February 5, 2008 #
Shirley – on the top ones I used Derwent pastel Pencils – I like Chinese White and Ivory Black . I think the best quality are Carbothello though. On the bottom ones, I had mistakenly taken Conté, which are too hard, especially the white. And the woman next to me loaned me a piece of red pastel, but it didn’t really work out.
These were the very best ones – a lot of them are truly embarrassing in their awkwardness. You have time to do a lot of 5 min drawings in 2 hours, so these were the exception, really.
Comment by caseytoussaint — February 5, 2008 #
Well, I think these look fabulous! I couldn’t do anything as good as this in five minutes.
Comment by carole — February 5, 2008 #
Casey, I’m so IMPRESSED. These are BEAUTIFUL. I’ve been avoiding life classes because I know how much work goes into this….perhaps I need to rethink this. You have inspired me. I hope your run of bad luck is over…..
Comment by lindsay — February 5, 2008 #
oh Casey, these are wonderful. I am partial to the horizontal drawings you’ve done. Really nice shading. How lucky for you to be able to attend this class.
Comment by Nancy — February 5, 2008 #
Hi Casey. Thank you so much for the shout out. I really appreciate it. I like these life drawings of yours. You’ve captured alot of information in 5 minutes. Your lines are great and full of energy. Especially the energy of the highlights. Life drawing is an every-other-week-struggle with me, (although I love the challenge) and I only get one or two good drawings out of 50 poses, if I’m lucky that day. I definately choke up with longer than 5 minutes. Keep up the good work! I think the key to good life drawing is the group that you draw with and most importantly, the talent of the model.
Comment by df — February 5, 2008 #
The second-to-last one is my favourite. Absolutely love it.
Comment by E-J — February 5, 2008 #
Beautiful figure work, Casey!
Comment by Suzanne — February 5, 2008 #
Oh I understand awkwardness! I find a lot of my figure studies are so awkward. These are lovely, especially on the toned paper. I saw a sketch I fell in love with this past weekend at the San Diego Art Museum which was done on toned paper with ink, charcoal and white gouache. How wonderful to have joined this co-op of artists also!
Comment by mARTa — February 5, 2008 #
Amazing work in just 5 minutes Casey.
Comment by Anita Davies — February 5, 2008 #
Casey, these are such a leap forward! You have made such great use of your medium, all while grappling with a very demanding genre—exceptionally well done!
Comment by LauraL — February 5, 2008 #
Whoops to the above—I’m neither LauraL, nor Larval! Once I must have made a typo and ever after, it appears with my posts here! You know who I am, though ;D.
Comment by Laura — February 5, 2008 #
Wow! These are terrific! Especially if only 5 or 10 minutes each. Thank you so much for sharing.
Comment by Susan — February 5, 2008 #
Holy moly these are so good. the white on the dark paper. You were able to get so much from such short poses.
Comment by janey — February 6, 2008 #
oh my goodness casey – these are lovely. that white (and the pink) on the toned paper is just beautiful, and your lines are just stunning.
Comment by juj — February 6, 2008 #
Do you take digital photographs? How many do you have to discard – does it worry you. I bet NOT! If this was a session of photography I would be extremely happy to have so many great ones. Now I happen to know a life sketch is much more difficult than a photograph – so, my conclusion is, Casey, these are beautiful! AMAZINGLY beautiful result from a life session. So there!
Comment by Robyn — February 6, 2008 #
Of course I meant ‘ If this WERE a session of photography …’
Comment by Robyn — February 6, 2008 #
Boy, Casey, you really have fast sketching down to an art. I love the life drawing sketches and the airport sketches, too. Your use of color is so lovely, but I just love the sense of movement.
Comment by Karen — February 9, 2008 #
Beautiful work. You’ve really captured the gestures of the poses in a natural way. Your use of white is very effective.
Comment by Bill Sharp — February 12, 2008 #
Your figure work is terrific. The figures have weight and depth and personality. Wonderful!
Comment by Jana Bouc — February 18, 2008 #
casey, these are truly gorgeous!! love them all!
Comment by Ujwala — February 19, 2008 #