Figure Drawing with Charcoal Pencils

I attended Paul Geigers figure drawing session on Wednesday. This time I used some different materials and medium. I purchased 18"x24" Strathmore Newsprint paper (300 series). I also bought 2B General's Charcoal pencils and soft vine charcoal. These materials are a perfect combo. The Newsprint paper has a nice rough surface so when drawing with sharp charcoal pencils I get beautiful rich dark lines. It's been so long since I've sketched with charcoal. I had forgotten the feel and sound charcoal makes when it strikes the paper. Felt like I was coming home.

We had a good model, I sketched many pieces in charcoal. Here are a couple drawings that challenged me.

So, good art materials, good model and of course good music. Paul played The Beatles White Album. Awesome tunes for drawing. Thanks again Paul for the music and the drawing sessions.

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Figure Drawing Reclining Nude

Last Wednesday I attended Paul Geigers figure drawing session. I created a lot of nice drawings. I wish I could share them all. I picked these two. They were the most challenging and I believe I learned a few lessons from these two.

The challenge for the top drawing was drawing the figure to fit the length of the page while her arm was in vertical position.

The foreshortening is off on the bottom drawing. I made the torso too long. She was reclining back more.

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"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"

Had the luxury again of attending Paul Geiger's figure drawing session on Wednesday evening. I had a really good drawing session.  Figure drawing will always be my foundation for my drawing technique, and my strong appreciation for the craft. Of course it helps that Paul played excellent music, and provides an awesome environment to draw and that he finds such amazing models!

As always, I'm just drawing shapes: positive and negative. The real person is on the pedestal, I'm just creating an illusion, a representation. Ever heard the phrase by the Belgium artist Magritte "Ceci n'est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe)"? For me to tell you this is a reclining women is a lie.  It's just graphite marks on paper, or better yet, if you're viewing this on your computer, it's just zeros and ones illuminated on your monitor.

How I Cheat In My Drawings

I had a great drawing session at last Wednesday night's Paul Geiger Studio figure drawing session. We had a new model. Paul started the session with a few short 5-minute poses for the crowd to warm up. Then a long pose was set up on the high platform. I like the visual effect of when the model is positioned high for drawing. The drawing usually has a grand feeling, as if you’re looking up at a building or mountain.

The model's pose was on a chair. I like the model seated for several reasons: first, the pose fits my drawing page; I can draw the scene bigger. If she was standing, then the pose would take up more of my page and I would have to draw her smaller to fit. Another reason is I liked the chair the model was seated on because I can use it as a tool for getting the proportions to the model correct.

This is when I feel like I’m cheating because the chair makes drawing the model so much easier. I use the negative shapes of the chair (the space between the legs of the model and legs of the chair). These shapes help me determine the proportions of the model easily. Sometimes people will say “Wow, that looks difficult; you're a good artist” and I usually respond “It's easy. I’m not drawing the model, I’m drawing the negative space”. If I draw all the negative shapes correct, then the figure starts to appear and I continue by drawing in positive shapes (the model).

These two drawings are of the same pose but from different angles, 30 minutes each. They were fun and rewarding to create. Plus Paul played good tunes starting with classical music, then some Dave Brubeck, and ending with Elvis Costello.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Foreshortening Female Figure Drawing

Hi, here are two sample drawings from a figure drawing session I attended last night. It started with several 5 minute poses as warm-ups, then one long pose for the rest of the evening. Out of several drawings I created, I chose to post these two. The sample on the right was 5 minutes and the sample on the left was the long pose.

The long pose had a lot of foreshortening from where I was viewing it, so I found myself taking longer to complete this piece than usual. I've done plenty of drawings with foreshortening, I enjoy them and they are challenging. I learned a lot from this drawing, I made a lot of proportions and alignment measurements with my pencil and this was the result.

On the 5 min pose, as always it's not enough time! At the end of 5 minutes the timer chimes and I always curse it, saying to myself "just 5 more minutes". The drawing is always unfinished and well I admit that's good because it FORCES me away from the drawing giving it that fresh, quick, unfinished, in progress sketch look. It's love-hate for me when it comes to 5 minute poses.

Hope you like these two drawings, feel free to let me know what you think of them.

Female Figure Drawing

Hello everyone, I haven't posted a drawing in a long time. I was on a dry spell but now I'm back and motivated.

I'm right now in Toledo, Ohio with family and I've been attending figure drawing sessions. Here's a figure drawing from last night session that I'm proud of. I had a great time. I was definitely in the zone. The crowd was small, the drawing studio had a good vibe, and the model was focused. O ya, and they played Beatles music :).

This is a really low view, the model was on a tall pedestal, so it has the cool effect of viewing her from the ground up.

I created this figure drawing in graphite on Strathmore Premium drawing paper. It took me about 30 min. I did a lot of proportions measurements and sighting with my pencil for alignment. More to come.