Life Drawing - Lesson 1

We had our first ever life drawing session and I must admit that I really did enjoy it. I, like most things on the course, have never done life drawing classes before. I was a bit sketchy on the idea of us standing around drawing a naked model for an hour or two. To me, it just didn't seem right, but when we started, I was blown away by how comfortable we all were, especially me.

Our model was a slim older gentleman, who we were told, had a lot of experience as a model. As soon as we had set up, he took his gown off then we were ready to draw. We were working on A2 pieces of paper, this meant that we had the freedom to roam around on the paper and experiment with size. Whenever iv tried to replicate someone, I always sketch them big, I usually end up putting two pieces of paper together, so it was good to have a large sized paper.

We were told that we were going to split our pieces of paper into 4 separate slots. Within these slots there will be four different poses. The gentleman would end up staying in the same position but turning every 5 minutes, just enough for us to do a quick sketch in charcoal.

The 4 pictures from different angles.

1. As you can see from picture 1, it was a slow start to the life drawing sessions. I started to everything that I saw because I was new to life drawing. Its only when the teacher came around and told me that I had to ignore the face and detail and just go with the outlines. When I started to get used to it, the teacher called time, so on I went to the next one.

2. With picture 2, the problem that I had was that was getting the proportions right. I started at the top of the head and worked my way down. Again during this one, I struggled, though this time, I managed to get the whole out line down.

3. By looking at the picture, you can clearly see the vast improvement that I underwent in such a short period of time. The head is a little off and the arms are too stubby and unrealistic but its a massive change from the other one.

4. Now this one is my favorite. I feel that I got most things right with this one, from the nipples down to the penis, I think that since the beginning drawing, I have come a long way and in that 20 minute session, I learnt a lot.

Once we had completed those drawings, we had to gather another piece of paper and get started straight away. This time we would be doing a 20 minute drawing of the gentlemen sat down in a chair doing another pose. The 20 minutes that we were given is a long time. That means that we get to add in as much detail as we can. This was the result.

The 15 minute drawing.

One this picture I felt that I got the general body shape down perfectly, like the folds in his skin when he sat down and his head shape. The thing that really got too me though was the way that the chair was positioned. It was almost like an obstacle in the way. As I took a fair amount of time drawing his body, when it came to the chair, I had like a minute, so I really did rush it.

From doing this picture I did get to grips with the time frame that we have and how much time I should be spending on each section of the drawing.

We were about to finish the class when our teacher comes ups to us and says as we have 3 minutes left, we will do a quick sketch. Once we had set up, we had 2 minutes on the clock. Quickly I ran my charcoal through the paper to try and get some sort of result. 

The quick sketch

I think that it was good in a way that we did do this experiment. It meant that we would not worry so much with our drawings and get straight to it. We are told that the key to be a great computer games designer is to be a great quick sketcher. This really helps me because I find that if I'm sketching, it usually takes me a while to get to grips with the drawing, but if I'm practicing drawing quickly, Ill soon be able to get away from this area quick.  

I really did enjoy our first life drawing lesson and I'm looking forward to the next session soon.