Life Drawing June 23

I went to figure drawing this evening and was disappointed to find out that a model I have been hoping to draw again had been scheduled for this evening, but she had been injured (sports) and would not be joining us. I hope it's nothing serious.

We had a young athletic male, instead. It was a challenge and a pleasure to draw his youthful lines (we have had a run of older models), particularly the larger curves of his biceps and pectoral muscles. But I couldn't seem to get going until almost half way though. It was a back pose that finally got me moved over to the right side of my brain.

A later pose didn't do a thing for me as a whole, and so I focused on his hands and the curve of his buttocks and thighs. Hands are new for me - I've had almost no practice - and they are particularly difficult. I'm not pleased with these, but they're not a bad start. I have to figure out what I want to do with hands, and I have to better understand the underlying anatomy and the overall forms, I think. I recently bought a book on the figure which concentrates on anatomy, and it has a special section for hands and feet. I will give it a careful look, now that I wrestled with this drawing.

The final pose of the evening dissapointed me - it didn't seem to offer me much of the figure from my position. But then I noticed his blanket over the ancient studio armchair, and I brightened up.

All of these are pencil on fairly smooth Strathmore drawing paper - 18 x 24 inches. Click any image for a closer view.

We had a larger than usual crowd (6), and three of us talked art and figure drawing books and teachers for the 20 minutes before starting. That was really good for me, too. I'm getting to know a number of the others by name, and we expect and hope to see each other each week.