Life Drawing

Since the beginning of Semester 1 in September, we have had the opportunity to attend a weekly life drawing class every Thursday taught by our lecturer, Michael Bass. We began with short lessons in which we covered the basics of anatomy, form and perspective. We needed to draw cubes in space shown at different heights and angles. This forced us to focus on the horizon line when drawing a three-dimensional space. George Adolphus Storey (2007) claims that:  

“This is an important line for the draughtsman to consider, for the effect of his picture greatly depends upon the position of the horizon.” 

 Mike advised us to think of the human body as a series of shapes interacting with each other, for example; the head, torso and pelvis would be spheres while the limbs would be broken up into cylinders. These first few classes were modelled by some of my fellow classmates to start. Our first homework assignment was to study the character design of Winnie the Pooh. The reason behind this being that Winnie the Pooh’s body is rather simplistic and we would be able to learn how to analyse his structure accurately. We were tasked with drawing a turnaround of his body (in order to learn to be consistent with a single design) and 5 poses created from our head. I found this assignment to be quite useful as I began to think more about how each body part interacted with each other in a 3D space. 

We then moved on to drawing the nude models the week after. Usually the class would begin with a session of quick gestural poses lasting for 20-30 minutes, and the poses would subsequently grow longer, sometimes lasting up to 15 minutes. Mike put a lot of emphasis on placing the figure on a solid surface in our mind and on the page. The model would often pose on a small, square stage which would act like a solid plane in space to place them on. As Storey (2007) states: 

“If we place [the object] flat on the table and look at it sideways or at an angle, then we become conscious of certain changes in its form.” 

The purpose of this was to establish a definitive perspective on the page that we could work with. Mike demonstrated a box-method, wherein the figure would be enclosed in a box the same size as their body. I considered this to be greatly helpful as I could much more easily visualise how the lines and shapes “converge as they recede” (Joseph D’Amelio, 2003) in perspective. I found myself beginning to focus more on foreshortening and distance. He also taught us to begin the drawing with a line of action. This determines the overall angle of the pose while also attempting to capture the energy and making the figure more dynamic. He told us to imagine a line travelling through the two extremes of the model's body. It should be a curved line rather than a straight one. Mike also then suggested that we try to use as many S-curves and C-curves as possible when drawing the figure so as to make a more interesting and fluid drawing. 

Soon afterward the homework task was to focus on the human head. In this task, we were told to draw the head of Superman specifically (for the same reason we drew Winnie the Pooh). I drew his head in a variety of different poses and angles, as a means of showing how facial features act in extreme positions. I tried to then reflect these principles in the next class by applying them to the model’s own head. I attempted to replicate what I had learned from this piece homework by splitting the head up into different segments, such as the forehead, eyes, jaw and back of the skull. I kept in mind all of the basic rules of drawing the skull, like how the eyes and the tip of the ears are level horizontally in profile, and how the corners of the mouth are in line with the pupils in front-view. However, I also attempted to apply new knowledge that I had gained from Mike’s online sources – like how to draw the sternocleidomastoid muscles in the neck. 

Another interesting task that Mike gave us was to practice drawing two characters at home: Dirk the Daring and Madam Mim. In class, we then had to draw the models as these characters. I found this to be a good way to learn how to concentrate on the actual posing of the model, as opposed to what my mind thought it saw. After this we then had to do the same with a character of our own. My design ended up being a small boy with a cap. He stands at two and a half heads tall and has thin limbs with a large, oversized head. I thoroughly enjoyed this week's class as it made me far more aware of what I was actually looking at. 

I believe that I have indeed improved my figure drawing significantly since the beginning of the year by attending these life drawing classes. I feel that through continuous practice, I have become more aware of certain flaws and aspects of my life drawing that need to be addressed and focused on. I agree with an expression that Conánn once used, saying that drawing is like a muscle that needs to be exercised and trained regularly in order to see rewarding results. I wish to practice more on foreshortening, as I still find it difficult to create a convincing foreshortened image/figure. I hope to do so by “continually observing perspective phenomena in real life and – more importantly – constantly sketching variations of each” (D’Amelio, 2003). It’s likely that I will watch and replicate online tutorials outlining the various techniques and methods of foreshortening in the coming weeks.