Life and a Laugh!

Cyndi in Repose / graphite on smooth tan paper / 35 minutes

Today was the end of this current session of life drawing and I am so sad! There is something so magical about drawing the human form from life and I always wish it would never end. The poses today were excellent as our model was very intensely focused. I once again went for the view with extreme foreshortening and am happy how this sketch turned out. I think 30 or 35 minutes is enough for me to catch the essence of the pose without going into excruciating detail. This drawing is on smooth tan paper with a few white charcoal highlights here and there.

Cyndi / 20 minutes / ebony graphite on newsprint

We did two sitting poses and eliminated the  long standing pose today. I think the instructor had a fear of the model falling off the platform and wanted to reduce the risk of that happening again! In any case, each one was a great pose and I was happy.

Cyndi /  30 minutes / ebony graphite on newsprint

As a warm up, we did our usual five 1 minute poses - they are so quick, I am never sure what I am capturing with my Conte as I draw them!

Two 1 minute poses / Sienna Conte on newsprint

Three 1 minute poses / Sienna Conte on newsprint

And now that the life sessions are over for a while, I found myself wondering what I could do with these sketches. It seems a shame to just hide them away in their sketch books so I decided to try my hand at painting a few of them in oil and came up with this composition.  I am not sure what I will do with it but it was fun getting to this stage!

24x36 / oil on linen

I had a very funny conversation with my husband the other day and thought I would share it with you. Last week, after coming home from my drawing class, I told my husband about the incident with the model where he fainted and fell off the platform. I explained that he was nude and the instructor ran over with his robe to cover him and my husband exclaimed "You are drawing naked men!" When I told him yes, we draw nude men and women in life drawing class, he asked me "Can't you find a Farm Animal drawing class instead?" I laughed so hard - I had just assumed he knew what life drawing was - but apparently NOT!

If This is Thursday it Must be LIFE!

 

 Alejandro, our model from a few sessions ago, returned for an encore today. This was the 45 minute pose and my goal was not only to focus on the extreme foreshortening but to show how relaxed the muscles were and how langorous was the model. Indeed, I think he fell asleep during this pose! The paper was provided by the instructor - it was a heavy weight, smooth pale gray paper with a bit of blue rag in it. I found I liked it alot.

 

For the seated pose, all his muscles seemed to bunch up and become much more prominent. This was my attempt at the 40 minute pose on a thin, pale ocher colored paper.

 

The standing pose had me seated and slightly looking upward at him. This was only 20 minutes and drawn in ebony pencil on the pale gray rag paper. Next week is the last class in this session and I will definitely miss it - these past 5 weeks have flown by!

 

 Thanks for looking and, as always, I very much enjoy reading your thoughts and comments.