figure drawing, male study

Here’s a 12-day study of a male figure completed during our morning class at the studio. I’m experimenting with toned paper and the use of white chalk. For now, I’ve decided to stay with graphite rather than switch to charcoal and white chalk. I like (or am used to) graphite and enjoy the subtlety you can achieve in the values with this medium. In the end, however, I’d eventually like to incorporate both charcoal and graphite in the drawing so that I can reach the rich dark that you can get with charcoal in a much more efficient way. At the same time, I can still take advantage of the subtlety and control that I am used to with graphite. I’ve tried this before with a cast drawing of an arm and the charcoal helped me progress the drawing much further without any loss of subtlety in the refining stages of modeling. I find it much more difficult trying to do this with the figure in the interior.

open sketch class drawing

When I get stuck on longer poses and projects, it’s very easy to forget how helpful a sketch session can be. This was a nice pose, and it was great practice in trying to track anatomical landmarks as her pelvis mimicked the weight of a pendulum throwing her contrapposto to and fro…it was actually more funny than frustrating. This taught me that sometimes it’s futile; you just have to let go and give up on the pose corrections. Accept it as a challenge for one session. Like a wise friend once said, “After all, it’s life drawing. They’re going to move!”