It Figures

(DISCLAIMER-Drawings of the Nude Human Figure)

One of my favourite things to draw is the human figure. Most of the time I tend to draw them in a clothed and mostly cartoony fashion, but I took a class on figure drawing during the Spring '14 semester. It was basically a room full of easels, 30+ students and a nude model. When the class started I was incredibly nervous and panicky. But eventually I got better and more confident, and I relaxed. Figure Drawing was the things that got me through losing my dad. The class was the only place I could clear my head and just focus on something else. So when my friend Clay's schedule and mine finally lined up with a local figure drawing group, we had to go.

The first time we went a few weeks ago I was super nervous, but still managed to have fun. I used more pieces of graphite instead of pencils. Quickly I was reminded of the areas I need to work on, mainly hands & feet and proportion of head/upperbody/lower body. For the most part my upper body looked good, but legs were too short, sometimes with too narrow hips. These issues weren't as bad once we got to longer poses, but my 3-10 minute poses all ended up super off. I think my last one turned out the best, and I even had time to work on the face.

A few weeks later, Clay and I went back to the figure drawing group. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not, after receiving the worst letter in the mail the night before, but I'm glad I went. Drawing and focusing was really good for getting my mind off my fear of not having a future. This time I didn't add any value to the figure and just focused on getting clean, accurate lines. I feel like my proportion is getting better overall, and I'm just improving in general. Though I did get super frustrated on our 45 minute pose. I drew it too small, so like 2/3 through I drew a second one, purposefully so large only the upper body fit on the page. I used ebony, 2h, and 6B pencils. I think next time I may want to bring marker or ink or something else. I don't know yet, luckily I have time to decide. I'm so excited for the next time we get to go draw.

Thanks for Reading,

Sarah