Exercise: Quick studies and basic shapes

2-minute drawings:

A4
Started with pencil, main shapes and lines first
Second one getting better with a bit more tone and being more fluid with strokes
Find it hard to do things in 2 minutes
starting with torso rather than head helps me situate the figure on the page better

A4 and pencil
like the lefts in top left, nice flow of lines, had to keep redoing the torso and position of head to get it right so no time for the face and hair
angled going away to the right, slightest perspective needed and helped with the leg and shortening of the calf and foot as it goes off into distance

inspired by seeing other people’s drawings in the studio I tried to get more flow and loose lines using A3
Repeating the same pose was useful to get a better sense of the figure an the drawing in the bottom left of the top left photo works best though I got the chest not as assurate as I was concentrating on the legs, the foreshortening and the way the hips were going off to the right
Top right photo was good though I make the legs too long although I like the way it came out it is not as correct

Back to pencil, A4
Model leaning away from camera so tried to capture that though slightly smaller proportions of the shoulder and how it covers the head slightly and the way you see facial features from ‘underneath’
Comments from the studio artist said it gave a slight ‘monumental’ look without loosing the reality

A3 and using light pencil for main shape then charcoal pencil on top for more contrast
like the pose and proportions except the hands and feet should have been bigger
Some tone coming in but realising I am doing more lines

Tried out light pencil on A3 then brush pen in grey, ink pen in black and then small nibbed ink pen for smaller details, combining them to get more rhythm but also to reflect the older skin of this elderly model

Some general reflections:

Warming up at the start of the session is really useful to loosen the hand and arm – particularly for me as I get bogged down in detail
working larger in paper is better for looser and bigger strokes – need to try pieces of charcoal next so I am also not holding a pencil