Sophie leaning back on a chair

My granddaughter Sophie, aged 9, can't stay still for long, so I got here to pose on this chair and took a few photos, and then made this sketch from the best one.

It is done in charcoal, with the pad supported by an easel so that I could work vertically. Some initial studies got the legs a bit too short, and the tilt of the head and the angle of the left arm took a few tried before I got them fairly right.

I tried to fill in quite a lot of detail, but felt I might actually ruin the image if I tinkered any more. So this slightly unfinished picture was the result, and was the main piece for my final assignment.

Liz does Facebook

In the final stages of my drawing course, I did this charcoal sketch of my daughter Elizabeth in a typical pose - crouched over her phone textng and updating her Facebook status.

I took some photos of her in the pose (as she would not have stayed still), and then used a stick of charcoal taped to a long brush to do the main part of the drawing. This was recommended by my tutor as a way of freeing up my rather cramped style. I finished off the detail with charcoal held in the hand, as the long stick was a little hard to control.

The whole thing took no more than 10 minutes, and I'm quite pleased with the immediacy of the pose and the sense of frantic concentration...(and yes, she does have long prehensile toes).

Two fashion pictures

It occured to me that fashion photographs are usually well posed and well lit, and could provide some subject matter for sketches. These two are based on ads found in the Sunday Times Style section.

This first one was done in pencil. I quite like the picture, although I have to admit the result does not bear a close likeness to model in the the original photograph...

For this one, I used oil pastels and experimented with smudging the lines to achieve shading and form.
Again, the result is not a good likeness of the model, but I think that in some aspects of the image - around the nose and the cheeks - the effect works quite well.

Four self-portraits

In this first pencil drawing, I've tried to convey what I think are my most distinctive features - a slightly bent nose and two very different eye shapes. Looking at it now, I needed to work more on the subtleties of shading, on the mouth, and also on the hair.

This second charcoal sketch was done much more quickly, and I like it a lot more. And when I showed it to my 9-year-old grand-daughter, she recognised it as being me, which was gratifying.

This 3rd pencil sketch, I think, works slightly better than the first, especially around the mouth.
However, my attempt to depict my own rather scrawny 'turkey' neck has not worked at all.

In this final sketch, I decided to switch to oil pastels and have some fun with colour. Not sure about the results, but I'd like to explore this medium a bit more.

Life drawing with Tracy

With a new group based in Deal, Kent, we had a model who did just a few longer poses.
In this first pose, Tracy adopted a rather slouched pose in a metal chair.

I started off with this pencil drawing, with the emphasis on line. Compared to the charcoal sketch I did afterwards (see below), I think it lacks some life and vigour. while I am a lot happier with the charcoal one.

 In this last one-hour pose, I continued with charcoal, and added some colour with Conte crayon.
I did quite a lot of re-working of this, and made the left foor larger at quite a late stage, realising that the foreshortening was not properly reflected in my picture.

Life drawing with Charlotte

In this session, we began with a couple of one- and two-minute poses. I decided to use a fine pen for this, and I'm quite pleased with the spontaneity of the poses.

Then we had two five-minute poses

 I think that, having more time to think, my lines have less vigour than the ones above. I realise I need to develop more confidence to do bold confident lines.

 

In this 20-minute pose, I reverted to pencil and I think it lacks any real life. Also the legs look too small and the feet are completely wrong.

In this last pose of 40 minutes, I switched to Conte crayon on coloured paper. I like the hand better than the feet.

Life drawing as Hope takes her clothes off

In this life-drawing session, the model Hope started off clothed and gradually removed her garments with each new pose. I didn't find it very easy, but here are the results (with the time taken on each). The first two use Conte crayon.

2 minute pose - which I think captures the balance between her limbs

10 minute pose - a bit scrappy, and the foreshortening of the right thigh is just wrong.

40 minute pose - in pencil. Not pleased with this, as it looks rather lifeless

Life drawing: 3rd session with Geoff

I decided to try an evening using just charcoal for all the poses. Feedback from my most recent OCA assignment is that I'm still too fussy in my approach and need to achieve a freer style of drawing. That, I fear, will only come with greater confidence in my abilities.

Anyway, we started with a few very quick poses and then did these two, taking 10 minutes and 15 minutes.

The lefthand one doesn't work. The buttocks aren't right, and the right leg is too short (ran out of paper). I'm a bit happier with the righthand one, which I think captures the fact that he is gripping his left leg. The foreshortened shin and foot also work OK, although I probably need to emphasise the left knee to show it's pointing at the viewer.

Then came a longer 45-minute pose, which initially gave me me some problems, particularly the left elbow, which was pointed directly at me. After a lot of re-working, I think it came out OK. The face still looks a bit wooden.

With a few minutes left at the end, I decided to focus on the head, and do a very quick sketch hol
ding the charcoal quite loosely in an attempt to achieve this "freer" approach.

The result is quite rough, but has a certain energy that I quite like. It's something I need to try more of...

Life drawing: yoga poses with Nina

I'm still focusing on line drawing so I once again decided to leave the Conte crayons and stick to using charcoal pencils and graphite pencils.
Nina began with a series of two-minute poses in different yoga positions, which created some interesting shapes, especially with feet appearing in unexpected positions... It was a good exercise in trying to capture overall shapes very quickly.

Then came two poses of 10 minutes:

This final drawing took 25 minutes, using a 4B pencil. The model was facing away from me with here elbows leaning on a small stool (hidden from view) and her hands in a praying position. Due to restrictions of space, I had to do this one from a standing position holding the sketchpad in my hand.

I though the shape of the model's back, the visible line of her spine, and the upturned soles of her feet,  would have made this a good pose to draw, but for some reason, I don't think it really comes off at all well. I'm not sure quite why, but I just wasn't on form....

Second life drawing with Robin

I last drew Robin back in May 2013, when I attended my first life-drawing class, so I was hoping to see some improvements in the intervening seven months. I'm not too sure the drawings actually demonstrate that.

I'm trying to focus on line at the moment, as that is what is required for part of my next assignment on my OCA drawing course. I therefore steered away from the Conte crayons and went back to pencils and charcoal pencils as my main media.

We began with a series of short 10-minute poses where Robin played imaginary musical instruments.
Here is the flute:

The legs are too short and the hand indistinct, but I was quite pleased with the effect of smudging the charcoal pencil to get some shading.
Here is the violin:

I think the hands are slightly better here.

Finally, we did a 40-minute pose, with Robin holding a broom:

Again, I think the legs look slightly too short and rather weedy compared to the body, but I'm not unhappy wiht the line of the face and also the way hands rest on the end of the handle.
Is there an improvement on last May? Maybe a little...