Much of my growth in Life Drawing in particular started with an Instructor at Art Center name Jeff Smith... When I started his class I was particularly unsure of my skill in Life Drawing, although I had plenty of adept and skilled instructors... He told the class that your lines should feel the same flexion / tension of the muscle you are drawing... At first I figure if I get all the lines in the right place must be what he means... Not so... On one particular day as I drew with a tight grasp on my pencil, pressing down with an even and wavering unsureness, we stopped, turned our pads around,and walked around the class. Finally he proceeded to approve or disapprove as he walked around looking at drawings, giving some criticism, primarily with frustration... I guess once he got to my pad, he had enough... He asked If I were drawing clouds? Puzzled, a little intimidated, and confused, I answered no... Just then he took his super black graphite pencil and started to meander all over the pad... Shock rattled my head... As he began to say, look at your lines, the say nothing about what the body is doing... you may as well be drawing clouds... This was my introduction to the intangable, becoming tangable. With that said... without all the people before that forcing the idea of gesture and form into my brain, all the knowlege of proportion and anatomy would be a waste... Those almost stick figure like drawings, but more whimsical in nature... Those simple cylindrical form, solving the issues of form in space... without these basic concepts, my growth would never have happened... In a few more postings, I am going to put my step by step process for life drawing... The most important thing about any drawing, always think about what the application of the drawing is... What are you studying for?
-Figure Invention?
-Animation Skills ( weight, balance, movent from pose to pose, consistency)
-Conceptual Drawing Skills ( all of the above, including value, compostion, action, rendering techinques)...
Etc...
First up is my awesome palette, and stand... I've had that metal/ ceramic tray since Art Center... Those things are durable and they clean up easy, if you're using acrylic paints...
Grid the wall and follow the boxes... easy as cake!
Now it starts to get tough... Fill in the biggest areas first!!!
Quickly massing in all the large colors first... from here once I have done this on all 4 walls, I can begin to go into the form turning and detail work... which is normally the most time consuming...
