Yr 2 Week 8: Life Drawing Update

Unfortunately Life Drawing hasn't been going quite as planned this year. The Life Drawing class seems to be severely understaffed and has led to us having a lack of Life Drawing models. The morning classes always have a Life Drawing model present, but for the afternoon classes there is almost never a model. Unfortunately I am in one of the afternoon groups meaning that my class never has a model, and due to being extremely busy recently trying to keep up with the course whilst working on my portfolio, I may have not attended the classes without a model, as it didn't seem like the most productive use of my time. The tutors had promised to rotate the groups so that everyone recieved a fair chance at drawing the model, but unfortunately this never happened and there was no official communication with students about the ongoing situation which was quite disappointing.

This week I decided to go to one of the early morning classes and skip half of my visual design class which had ended early, as I hadn't been to Life Drawing in a while and was very concerned about missing it again, whilst wanting to ensure there was a model present, which I knew would be definite in the earlier classes which I am usually unable to attend.

The class was mainly focusing on getting the shapes and form correct, so for this class I spent a lot of time lightly sketching the basic shapes of the model and the lines and flow of the form, before drawing over the top of them.

The first four drawings each took 6 minutes. I feel as though my second two images came out better in comparison to the first, and I can see that I am starting to develop a better understanding of anatomy. One of my main areas of improvement seem to be the legs, I feel as though in my drawings now the legs are actually decently proportioned and have all of the flow and form included, instead of just looking like sausages. But now I feel like my main problem areas are the stomach and shoulders.

The second two drawings both took 20 minutes each and were sitting poses. I find these poses more difficult than the shorter ones, as shorter poses are mainly focused on getting the basic shapes, whereas longer drawings I tend to find I spend too much time worrying about mistakes I have made and trying to correct them, which I may not be able to do without starting again, and have to continue trying to fix a drawing for a long period of time which I may have messed up.

I am hoping that life drawing classes will sort themselves out soon, as I am aware that our next project is a character project, so life drawing is something quite important to have.