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.
