1.5 hour pose.This post is a little late, from a week ago, but at least I got it posted before I drew another. This one felt challenging to draw and I remember feeling frustrated at the time. It might be hard to tell but the… — 1.5 hour pose.

This post is a little late, from a week ago, but at least I got it posted before I drew another. This one felt challenging to draw and I remember feeling frustrated at the time. It might be hard to tell but there were two models, one female (foreground), one male (background).

I think the proportions look good and the tonality & line-quality are nice.

i wish there was more detail on the hands & feet, more of the male in the background.

[.life.drawing.3.31.15.]

April 6, 2015

[life.drawing.3.22.15]

March 22, 2015

Changing to larger paper and charcoal & ebony black pencils turned out to be a happy change. I'm still struggling with distortions but I enjoy my line quality. I think I will continue doing larger portraits with charcoal and pencil.

20-40 minute poses.

[.Life.Drawing.][03.10.15]

March 11, 2015

I think this drawing turned out better than my previous attempts this year. I think increasing the scale helped me, as I'm now using 20x30 in paper, and also using different materials helped too, as I used charcoal and pencil. I think her eyes are a bit wonky though.

One pose; 1 hour 20 min total.

Life Drawing (3-8-15) & I think spring is here!

March 8, 2015

Happy daylight savings time! I'm excited that longer days are abound!

Drawing this morning felt challenging- I woke up late and missed out on the gesture drawing warm-up, and generally I hate gesture drawing but today I noticed how much it helps get started. I felt like I was fighting to stay with it- all of the drawings felt like an uphill battle. I was having a hard time creating something that looked as accurate as I wanted; however once I let go of my desire for realism things began to flow much better. I think I need to embrace my distortion more and accept that distortion is part of what makes my drawing style what it is. I do think I had some nice marks today.

30 minute poses.

Life Drawings (3-1-15)

March 4, 2015

These are my most recent drawings from our life drawing group. Each drawing was from a 30 minute pose. I thought these were garbage but after a couple days have passed I think they've grown on me. I still have some work to do on hands and feet though.

more drawing group

February 17, 2015

On Tuesdays our drawing group has one 2-hour pose, as opposed to the 30 minute poses they have on Sundays. This gave me the chance to work on a larger scale and also refine my drawing a bit. I'm really happy with how quickly it came together. I think the fact I was standing this time helped immensely- It allowed me to have a better angle my drawing and be more engaged- It's like it keeps me on my toes (both literally and figuratively (figuratively? figure drawing? eh? eh?))

I feel like some of the detail and finer line-quality is lost in this photo, but I it's also nice seeing the same work smaller and condensed- I can now see some issues with proportion and the shadows (I really didn't focus too much on the shadows.... and it shows...). The hand is a bit wonky too.

I think next Tuesday I'm going to switch to charcoal. All in all a great session.

Figure drawing group

February 15, 2015

It's been over a year and a half since I've done any life drawing... or much of any drawing at that... I used to draw a lot when I was in college but after I graduated I dropped the activity entirely and mostly got distracted with other things.

Even though I haven't practiced at all my style has actually improved a bit- maybe it's just that I'm older and slightly more patient. It seems like some of the things I've learned have gotten a chance to gel and some of my bad drawing habits have faded somewhat.

I feel incredibly fortunate that Cedar Rapids has a group that gets together twice a week.
Each of these drawings are from 30 minute poses at the groups Sunday session.