Art - Life Drawing Session 3: Julie

FULL DISCLOSURE, THIS LIFE DRAWING SESSION TOOK PLACE 3~4 WEEKS AFTER THE LAST AND AS A RESULT, THE EARLIER, WARM-UP DRAWING IN THIS COLLECTION LACK TECHNIQUE AND PRACTICE!

Our last session of life drawing was certainly the most experimental, seeing as we were given full reign over which materials we could use to illustrate Julie. I wanted to start small with a pencil, however, as seen below, the edges weren't nearly as defined and ended up spending too much time going over lines to make them stand out more than I ended up with an unfinished picture.

For my second attempt, I changed out the pencil for a thicker graphite pencil that, compared to my prior piece does a much better job at defining edges. However, I do believe spent too much time on specific areas of the body trying to get proportions right and adding detail as I drew appendages when I should've blocked them out first. The result was once again incomplete.

Remembering back to our second session with Fabrizio and how efficiently we were with the sticks of charcoal, I decided to use that on my fourth attempt. Looking back and comparing this to my final Fabrizio piece, They're both similar in the sense they're silhouettes that capture the basic proportions of the model.. Where I went wrong, however, was the overuse of dark tones which, initially I thought I could erase to revive some of the detail that was lost because of this decision.

This was clearly the best of the 5 however that's not to say it wasn't flawed. I remember being disappointed with the prior attempt and instead used a mid tone that would be easier to erase and make amends to which I think worked much better. What I believe I did well with this attempt was the blocking out of the body, leg and yonder arm which I believe were semi-accurate. I remember doing the right arm whilst also focusing on how to tone the back and I believe that was where I let the proportions slip. Where I think I went wrong with the head was trying to fit it into the frame and, just for a second, disregarding the scale in conjunction with the rest of the body.

To conclude on the third and final life drawing session we had, I feel I learnt a whole bunch about taking from a real-life reference as opposed to a photograph or 3D rendered environment. I've learnt it's important to block out what you're drawing first before adding details and tone so elements such as proportion are respected and drawn correctly.