Monday 29 September 2014

Sketchbook 022

A bit of a scrappy month in the sketchbook. Tried out a few pens which led to Goldilocks moments: too thick, too consistent... Rarely felt like things clicked in to place and just flowed.
 








Sunday 21 September 2014

Life Drawing 004

First time I've gone to life drawing in some time. Really enjoyable there and then in the moment but when I got home pages looked dull, amateurish with no real insight or the feeling of things locking cohesively together in to place.



 
The life drawing class was 2 and a half hours in length after a long day at work so my concentration levels were flatlining as I got to the final pose below. The instructor (a really nice passionate old man) stood over my shoulder and called me up on everything, basically things I was just making do with rather than applying a bit of thought and concentration to: proportions, angles, planes, tonal weights. He explained 'jumping the lights' to me (using same tonal depths on two differing side-by-side planes which should have differing tonal depths to distinguish one getting more light than the other, causing confusion) which just crumpled me at that late stage

 
Ideally, I'd like to walk away from life drawing knowing that it feeds in to my own drawing and illustration. But at moment, it seems to have just widened the bridge in my head. The exactitude and technique needed for solid life drawing highlights how my own drawing work seems to be cobbled together from lazy stylization tics and papering over limitations. Maybe there's positives to be got from questioning and taking things apart in my head. Hopefully.