Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Energy in drawing vs correctness





At class it's interesting to see the differences in the way people work - some draw with a pencil each week, and take care to get the correct line, shading in with crosshatching; some do the dark tones in crosshatching with conte before line; some try to get the whole figure and some of the surrounds, some focus in on part of the body; some use willow charcoal or pastel and use broad strokes and energetic line. I tend to use charcoal, willow and compressed, and often red and white as well. Last night I used red only for a couple, and white on black building paper. I tried to take more care and be less quick. Overall I think I prefer to be energetic with the arm, and make my scribbly, quick marks but it's good to challenge oneself. To make a correct drawing I think I'd need a whole lot more time than the model can hold. We tend to have 5 minute poses, and then two or three 20 minute poses, so there is a limit to what one can do. The best life drawing I ever did was at a course a year or so ago, where the model fell asleep in a reclining post, near the end of the day, nice late afternoon sun and shadows in the studio. I did a huge drawing on brown paper (now buried amongst a year's drawings) and it was relaxing to not feel pressure of time to get down what I wanted before the pose changed. I always think I'll revisit my drawings, redraw and correct...it's on the to do list. Here's a couple from last night, including a cropped portion of the white chalk, I was quite happy with the face and I liked the way the hand fell though I didn't get time to go back and work on that - probably a good thing!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are great - especially love the last one. Lovely work. Personally I prefer energy over correctness every time - from myself and other artists. I envy you your life drawing classes. They are such a good way of honing your skills.

Sandra T said...

Thanks, Cath. We're lucky in that a local artist has the energy and made the time commitment to organise the classes - I can see there's a lot involved with organising and and opening up and heating the venue every week, organising appropriate lighting, advertising for and organising models, and he brings easels on his trailer every week, boards, clips, and materials for people to buy if they haven't got their own, it's quite a mission!