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Life model
Back at Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room, after a good few weeks' absence, I found that I was a bit rusty at the old life drawing. Eventually, the scribbling cogs began to turn smoothly, so I carried on using that technique where I try and keep my pencil on the page as much as possible. I quite like the results (a whiff of Egon Schiele, perhaps?) and the wiggly lines make me think of blood vessels, tendons and the nervous system.
Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013
I've been back above the Sparrowhawk pub again, in Crystal Palace, doing another evening of life drawing at Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room. This week, I used watercolour paper (300gsm, so pretty thick) and some water soluble pencils. I've not used the pencils with water before, so my first forays have been a bit tentative. However, even without adding water with a paint brush, the pencils are gloriously soft and black. I think next time, I might take some larger sheets of good paper and try and be less inhibited. Anyway, here are some more, done on the same evening.
Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013
Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013
Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013
Life Drawing 5th Aug 2013
There is a slight burlesque feel to these life drawings from Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room session in Crystal Palace (above The Sparrowhawk). Our model wore a few vintage items of clothing, which actually helps with getting the proportions right when drawing the figure. Tried a new medium for the quick drawings this time: ink (using Faber-Castell pens).
Life Drawing 5th Aug 2013
Life Drawing 29th July 2013
My task on Monday was to put some curves back into my life drawing at Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room, SE19. As an exercise, I tried to keep my pencil on the paper as long as possible. Instead of drawing all over the place, to get from one side of the page to the other I had to follow an existing (or create a new) route. This increased the darkness of the lines, sometimes, but did make it harder to measure or prepare proportions. I'm really pleased with this picture but none of the others made the grade for the web, I'm afraid.
Life Drawing 15th July 2013
Life drawing evenings continue (despite the dense London heat we have at the moment) at Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room in Crystal Palace. I found an old pad of coloured, slightly textured paper that I think used to be my mum's (!) It even has the price written on the front in pencil: 10/- which I believe is 10 shillings. I've had it for years, but never found a use for it - until now. I thought I'd try my hand at using soft pencil, white chalk and working more tonally. I'm still wrestling with the speed that I have to work at during the poses but I guess that's all part of the Life Drawing Game. Learning that economy of line and tone to convey the human body as succinctly as possible. Anyway, it's all for the good causes of Art and Illustration.
Rowney sketchbook