Traditional Graphite Drawing of Young Woman

I attended the weekly Wednesday evening figure drawing session and again I produced some nice drawings. I definitely believe the environment has a lot to do with my success in creating these drawings, the sessions are held on the top floor of an old four story brick warehouse near downtown Toledo. The adventure begins when climbing a long stairwell to the top floor that seams to always leave me out of breath. It's impressive to enter a real aged artist studio with weathered wooden floors, several large hand printing presses, high ceilings, artwork and posters on the walls, it just feels like it's been there a long time. The figure drawing space is large and sectioned off by large plastic walls to contain the warmth from the heaters and has more artist stuff: old art frames, easels, large schoolhouse chalkboard, old furniture, good lighting, a large model stand, a good sound system and a large chubby cat! This creative environment sets the tone for creating good art, and last night there was a cool crowd of artists, a nice model, and of course, good music.

Here are two drawings I chose to post, the sketch on the right is a 5 minute pose and the drawing on the left is a 30 minute pose, and the center drawing is a closeup portrait of the left side drawing. The model did a great job holding her poses, and the music was nice: old church hymns for the 1st half and Tom Petty's greatest hits for the 2nd half!