I have begun at the life drawing classes at Ruskin's School of Fine Art and Drawing here in Oxford. It is kind of an exclusive club which is only open for "members of the university", that is, either students or staff. It is a good, solid, oldfashioned lifedrawing course and is a good antidote to expressive fashion illustration courses. We don't learn much about personal expression; it is about reworking your drawing over and over to get the proportions absolutely right. We work with 45 and 90 minutes poses and last year I found it terribly difficult to work on a pose that long. I hardly ever left with something that looked like finished drawings, just raw sketches, smudged by repeated alterations. I almost had to force myself to sign up again this term - three hours drawing lessons after an eight hours work day with a teacher that never praises and corrects everything you do is not something you do for fun, but I learnt so much from the course last year, so I signed up again. I made this drawing last week in a 45 minutes pose, and I am so pleased with it. For once, I managed to use the time really well. It is not a great drawing, but the proportions are really good and I feel that it really shows how much I have learnt.
P.S. I have been wanting to upload this for 1½ week. I have tried to scan this at work, but it is difficult to scan as it is drawn on really large paper (larger than A2), so you will have to put up with this poor quality photo. I will try to make a better scan next week.
I loved this from the first time I saw it. It is very much your linear style, although I can see where you have attempted to add more tone, as you mentioned elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteYou have expertly portrayed distance and foreshortening. Her body looks relaxed but her expression is slightly uncomfortable, which is fitting. Great work - well done.