Jane threw us a surprise for today’s class. We kicked off with a series of one minute sketches, and I was embarrassing useless. We did about six and I didn’t manage to get one single complete figure! I decided there and then that those would never see the light of day they were so embarrassingly bad. I was cursing, and whining and sighing – my classmates must have been sick of my pathetic utterances. However, a bit later, when I got home and was setting up to photograph the sketches I realise that there was some merit in the bits that I had managed to draw, and so details are presented here…
Then came a ten minute pose, and a chance for me to claw back some sense of dignity. It’s not great. The arms are peculiar and there’s something amiss with in the hip’n’thigh region, but it’s an improvement – it’s a whole figure!
Our main, long pose, was done before the break this time. Sketching it out in charcoal first, I then worked in the lines with my new chalk pastels and blended in tone. I’m actually pretty pleased this one.
…after the break there was just time for another long-ish pose. Didn’t get a chance to finish this one, mainly because his left leg was giving me problems in the knee area – you might be able see where I had to get the putty rubber out. I made his back taller and redid the head, but I don’t think it was enough. However, I’m still getting the idea, and the chalk pastels were fun…
I think they are quite good. I taught myself to draw Disney- and anime-style cartoon figures when I was very young, and I’ve done that kind of sketching for so many years that it’s nearly impossible for me to draw realistically. I am impressed by what you can do with charcoal and paper in just a few minutes.