Here’s the final selection of images from the Portrait and Life class I was doing a little while ago.
Working in black ink, with no pencil roughs first was my favourite way to tackle life drawing. You can’t be precious and have to make every line count.
Ink, Life 20 mins 24.1.12
Ink, Life 15.11.11
Ink, Life 29.11.11
Ink, Life 45 mins 1.11.11
I’d love to do a comic in this style sometime, though maybe with people wearing clothes!
I hadn’t touched charcoal for years when I gave it a try in my portrait & life class. I thought I wouldn’t be into the messiness of it, but after a while I started to enjoy how quickly you could fill a sheet of paper with light and tone.
The foreshortening on this first pic was tricky but it worked out okay. if you start by drawing something mid-distance (in this case, the model’s left thigh) getting the other elements in proportion seems easier.
Charcoal, Life 70 mins 31.1.12
Charcoal, Life 10 mins 4.10.11
Charcoal, Life 15-mins, 4.10.11
One more batch of life drawings coming soon!
Just remembered some efforts from a Portrait and life class I’d been meaning to post.
Doing super speedy drawings in a life class is scary at first but you can get some energy filled results. Sometimes it can go horribly wrong but when it works it’s a nice surprise!
Would be so great if I could always draw at this speed!
Colour Pencil, 5 mins 29.11.11
Colour Pencil, 2 mins 24.1.12
Pencil, 2-mins 9.5.11
Pencil, Very quick 20.6.11
Pen and Colour Pencil, 10 mins 11.10.11
Pen and Colour Pencil, 2 mins 11.10.11
Okay, so these are drawings rather than paintings, but “Who Draws the Drawers” is too much of a tongue twister.
Occasionally in the class I was attending, the model would cancel at the last minute, so instead us arty types would sit around and draw or paint each other. It’s a whole new set of skills, drawing a moving subject as oppose to a professional model, sitting still for ages. Also, as all the models in the class have been women it’s been the only opportunity in the class to draw guys…
Ink portrait 13.3.12 (1h 10 min)
Ink portrait 13.3.12 (1h 10 min)
Pencil portrait 11.7.11
And here’s a couple more pencil portraits…
Pencil portrait 8.11.11 (20 mins)
Pencil portrait November 2011
Richy’s Portrait & Life will return in Portrait & Life Part 6!
Being an illustrator rather than a fine artist, using watercolour with an ink line seems to come a lot more naturally to me than watercolour alone. Not that I’ve come close to mastering the technique of course.
Watercolour and Ink Painting 24.1.12
Watercolour and Ink Life Painting 24.1.12
Sometimes it’s nice to pick one area of a painting (such as the figure) and add colour only there. This creates a nice contrast between two different textures.
Watercolour and Ink Life Painting 7.2.12
After doing the below image in just watercolour in class, I felt it needed a touch more definition, so I added outlines in Photoshop at home. Hmm… would be interesting to try a life drawing straight into Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.
A nice thing about taking an art class is you can try out all sorts of techniques and mediums that might not suit the commissions you’re working on in your professional life. I hadn’t touched watercolours for ages, but inspired by various children’s book illustrations and the excellent backgrounds in the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch, I really wanted to try them again.
Watercolour Life Painting 6.3.12
I love the paint’s translucency, especially against nice grainy paper. The tricky thing is timing when to add another layer on top. It’s great working over wet paint and getting a soft edges to each area of colour. It gets frustrating though when you need to do fine sharp detail and the paint below isn’t dry yet.
The room itself makes a really difference to the drying speed. On a wet day it can feel like forever, on a sunny day or a cold day with heaters in the room the paint can dry too fast if you’re not careful. Back in my studio I can use a hairdryer to help control the process.
Watercolour Life Painting 15.11.11
These were all painted over a rough pencil guide. Some artists work without this guide, filling in big areas of space and colour, then getting more and more precise with each layer. I’ve given this a shot too but find that approach counter-intuitive, which is why I’m not displaying my attempts on this blog!
Watercolour Portrait 13.12.11
More work from my Portrait and Life class soon…
Here’s my next batch of efforts from the Portrait & Life class I’ve been attending. At the start of the course I worked with the humble pencil, which seemed the least daunting medium at the time.
I worked on learning the technique of building up form by slight variations in the angle of hatching. It takes ages mind you, which is why many of my attempts remained unfinished. Excellent way of learning about form though.
Pencil Life Drawing 4.7.11
Pencil Life Drawing 13.6.11
Pencil Life Drawing 16.5.11
Pencil Life Drawing 27.9.11
After I unveiled my David Lynch themed comic, a couple of friends were surprised at the art-style. Not my usual more cartoony work. Please note I do not use “cartoony” as a negative adjective as some people do.
I’m definitely being influenced by taking some Portrait & Life classes over the last half a year or so. First time I’ve done Life drawing since Art College, where frankly I never really appreciated it.
It’s great to sit, observe and just draw or paint, not worrying about story, character or context. The techniques learnt have crept into my comic and illustration work.
Ink wash Portrait 16.1.12
Hmmm… maybe the eyes on the face below do look cartoony, but as I say, that’s not a negative in itself so I don’t care!
Ink wash Portrait Face 16.1.12
Ink wash Portrait 13.12.11
I’ll post some more pics from my Portrait & Life sessions soon!
