We're lucky to have life drawing classes once again up and running, commencing March 12, with
John Mulvay. The class ran for two terms last year with community education funding. Classes are held in Waihi and the local college can provide details to anyone interested in joining.
Anyone who reads this blog will know I appreciate the opportunity of being able to draw from life (see quote on my page here). There's something about having a class to attend each week that keeps me up with my drawing. Keeping notebooks and visual journals all over the place helps as well - in the car, in my bag, in the sitting room, by the computer... but those drawings are usually fairly quick compared to a couple of hours concentrated drawing with a model every week.
Drawing the human form teaches so much about proportion, volume and structure in an expressive subject that has been an enduring theme throughout the history of art.
By the end of a couple of terms I was starting to really use my drawings as a resource in paintings and beginning to work up some of the drawings I brought home from class. I'd like to continue to do that, creating more finished works from the drawings. The gesture drawings would have to be my favourite though, those very short (one minute) poses that can really capture so much.
I have several of my drawings on my flickr page that links from the slideshow at the top right corner of this blog. The photos above are drawings as they were from the class and later after working on them further. The drawing of two models was done originally in red compressed charcoal and later worked on with indian ink, white charcoal and compressed charcoal. The other drawing was originally in black and white compressed charcoal, and I worked further with both media and some red charcoal. Both are on brown paper.
