After a year break from life drawing (originally only in first year) I was very excited to start it again as I learnt a lot of new skills and enjoyed working with charcoal. In our first life drawing session of the term, we worked with still life objects.
Above is the first session best pieces I produced. We used parts of animal bones and two human skeleton models that we could take apart and re-position randomly. Although I found it strange working so close to bones, it was a good chance to study bone structure and the skeleton form. In the last fifteen minutes of the session, we were asked to explore and have fun manipulating forms into a part of nature. I decided to incorporate bones into a tree which was challenging and fun.
In our second session, we had a male model and did a variety of compositions and timed pieces. I thoroughly enjoyed working in a background for context on a few, as the charcoal can give great texture and mood to a piece.
For our third session, we played around with lighting such as harsh light. It was interesting to study how strong light fell onto the body's form. I experimented with compressed charcoal, although some of the strokes if you're not careful can get very black. We also tested our skills by sketching with our charcoal taped at the end of a long stick which I found really fun.
For our fourth session, we had another female model and practised with some more longer poses. One of the sessions students brought in a prop snake to help develop his portfolio and it was fun working with the shape and flow of the two subjects. We also did a turnaround study where the model moves and everyone draws again and again until we have a complete rotation of the model over six stages; which I thought came out quite well.
In our last session of the term, we challenged ourselves with several quick timed poses from a few minutes to just thirty seconds! I really enjoyed working like this as it challenged you to not think but just include basic form and quick charcoal strokes. In addition to this, the model was very diverse and changed to a lot of different positions over the course of the session.
I also got the opportunity to work with coloured markers in the session and investigated two tone compositions; adding in harsh strokes with changes to brush thickness and outlines. Overall, I have really enjoyed the return of life drawing for third year in the course and have found it really beneficial, aiding my drawing and observational skills with the natural form.
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