Preliminary Figure Drawing

This is an unfinished drawing of a standing model. Similar to the two drawings I last posted, this model's back is (somewhat) turned toward me. I laid in the the initial structural foundation for a finished drawing. The drawing is visibly schematic and geometric, with straigt lines and sharp angles, as opposed to the natural roundedness of a living being. This is a manner of setting up a drawing that I adopted many years into my practice of life drawing. Prior to adopting this method, I would take a few minutues to very lightly sketch in the volumes of the body as variably sized circles, elongated ovals, and rounded rectanges. I would then define the figure by drawing the contours of the models' shapes to bring the figure to a finish. I would add modeling ("shading") or not, depending on the time available and if I wanted to go beyond merely linear drawings. I was not a naturally "painterly" draughtsman, (that is, an artist who depicts the subject with broad planes of light and dark tones). I am, by nature, inclined to see and rely on contour lines. However, in the later years of my attending life drawing, the changing instructors tended to set up long drawings--that is, the drawing session would be devoted to drawing from a one long pose, either three to six hours, depending on whether we would be drawing the model for one session or two. In the years prior to that, my instructors tended to have us draw shorter multiple poses in one three hour class, from one minute gesture drawings, to five minute, 10 minute, 15 minute, and 25 minute poses, ending with one 50 minute pose, (with a five minute rest at the midway). With such short poses, I didn't have the time (or inclination) to try to apply more than rudimentary modeling, if any. (I have posted drawings here that are obviously primarily "contour drawings.") With the three- and six-hour poses, I took the time to erect the basic figure, using straight lines and sharp turns to achieve more accuracy in recording the figure. This is a typical way that life drawing is taught. I am of two minds about it. I appreciate the gains in my skill in perception that I acquired in adopting this schematic approach, but I feel that I lost, to a degree, the natural, "living" quality that I see in my earlier drawing. Also, there is a pleasure in just "knocking it out," and producing a satisfactory drawing. It feels more spontaneous, like playing, as opposed to the methodical "work" of building the figure from the foundation up, step by step. That said, I am pleased with this unfinished "schematic" drawing. (I had been drawing the model as the instructor was lecturing, and the pose was not intended to be resumed after the 20 or 25 minutes lecture was concluded.) However, I see in my drawing the model's head is too big relative to his body.

Two Backs

I have no memory or documentation to indicate when I drew these two models, but I can tell they were made years apart, with the drawing of the male model being an earlier drawing than the one of the female. I can tell the drawing of the male model was a short-ish drawing, probably 10-15 minutes at most, given its lack of detail. The drawing of the female model took longer, given that I took the time to lay in the shape of the shadow pattern on her figure. However, it is incomplete. It is too schematic for this to have been what would I intended as the final finish. It is fixed in that half-way state been preliminary "blueprint" (so to speak) and completion.

Lanky

I can't recall how long this pose was, but given the detail, I'm guessing it was a long pose of 50 minutes, (two 25 minute posing sessions with a 5 minute rest pause for the model). There were longer poses in which the pose would last for the entirety of either one or two drawing classes, (each class duration was 3.5 hours with 5 minute breaks every 25 minutes and one 25 minute long break for the model and the artists). In such cases where the pose lasted for two classes, the model would return to the next class session later in the week or even the next week and resume his or her pose from the previous class. Again, thinking back to my drawing skill at that time and the appearance of this drawing, I'm pretty sure this to have been a 50 minute pose.

"Vinnie De Milo": On Drawing Casts

Prior to the advent of modern art, the great art academies in Europe, (and those schools in America who modeled themselves on the European academies) typically required students to take classes in cast drawing before moving on to drawing from the live model. A "cast" is a plaster figure of various aspects of human figures: heads, hands, feet, torsos, whole bodies, and even the separate features, (eye, nose, mouth, ear). Students would draw from the casts, illuminated under dramatic lighting to accentuate the shadow shapes and highlighted areas of the object, the more clearly to reveal the form under observation. Students would not be permitted to move on to drawing from the live model until they had developed acceptable perceptual and drawing skill to render accurate drawings of from the casts. Thus, by definition, every student in the life drawing class had developed and demonstrated great facility in close observation and accurate rendering on paper of three dimensional objects. Cast drawing came to be disdained as "modern art" appeared, (beginning with the Impressionists in France), and young students came to find cast drawing dull and stifling, (notwithstanding their efficacy as tools for developing acute skill in rendering three dimensional forms accurately). In recent years, a vogue has developed of young artists seeking out art schools and ateliers* teaching the "antique" skills of representational drawing, including classes in cast drawing. *(Ateliers are small artist-run studios where students learn under close tutelage, often by one or a few artists who run the atelier. The teaching is in the mode of master/apprentice training.) I took life drawing classes at the Art Students League of New York for nearly 30 years. The League teaches classes in traditional figure drawing and painting, as well as sculpting, but it also includes many classes in abstract and non-representational art. It was founded in the 19th Century by art students in New York who rejected the traditional teaching style modeled on the European academies. I generally only drew from the models, but there were rare occasions where either the model was late arriving or I was uninterested in drawing the model for some reason. On a couple of such occasions I drew from the (somewhat larger than life size and very dusty) full-figure drawing cast that had been a fixture in the studio for decades, probably as far back as the League's 19th Century founding. I have posted two of those drawings here: a frontal view and a rear view. I did not attempt to draw them with the close attention and exacting fidelity that was expected of students in cast drawing classes. Such drawings required hours (spanning days) of slow and deliberate drawing by the students. (And, frankly, I have not developed the skills necessary to produce such finished "academic" cast drawings.) I did these both rather swiftly, probably no longer than 30 minutes on either drawing. I used charcoal to draw the frontal view and a pencil to draw the rear view.

Reclining Woman

This is a 15 minute sketch of a clothed model. After drawing literally thousands of nudes, it is really tons o' fun to draw from the clothed, or "draped" figure. I can't recall if this was drawn in one of the drawing classes I attended at the Art Students League of NY, or if it was was drawn in a private sketch session. I and a group of students at the League would periodically hire models from the League to pose for us in private sessions held in a rotating series of sketch members' apartments. (I'm sure there were other students not part of our group who were doing the same thing.) Typically, in the private sessions the models would pose nude, as they did at the League. This leads me to think this was drawn at the League, but in a circumstance where the paid model was tardy and a student would volunteer (or be asked) to pose until the model arrived. This was extremely rare, but I can recall it occurring at least a couple of times. In any case, this quick sketch is among those drawings I am most pleased with out of tens of thousands of drawings (from nearly 30 years of life drawing). I would love to return to life drawing, but there is no easy access to life classes in my current location.

aCiD tRiP dRaWiNg

This is an interruption of my plans to post more of my life drawings. The title of this post and the comment scribbled on the image is...'nuff said!

Life Drawing, continued.

Here are more one minute poses, although I believe the first page of the male model may be five minute poses...though I'm not certain. They could also be one minute poses. I'll be posting more one minute drawings throughout, as I find those to be the most satisfying to me...in the ones where I am happy with how I captured the action. I will, also, post some longer, more finished drawings in future supplments.