Life Drawing week 6

Another week of trying different techniques to get the gesture poses finished in 5 minutes, but I've still yet to develop an effective method. I tried standing back and swiping out the shapes, standing back and tracing the major lines of the shoulder, hip, knee and foot, and still I find myself zeroing in on detail too early, or failing to capture the proportions.

This pose was relatively successful, and probably could have been salvaged to create something once the left shoulder had been dealt with. Again, though, I found myself without the necessary time to get the whole posture on the page.

I tried something different here, just to use big, heavy sweeping lines. Not massively successful.

This slightly longer pose (it may have been somewhere more like 15 mins) allowed at least for some definition and shading to create a three dimensional effect. Aside from obvious struggles capturing a face or the complexities of the hands, I thought this was OK. The foreshortening of the right arm needed work but should have had the hand involved to be effective.

This was my favourite piece of the night, probably the only one that had real promise, although there are definite problems regarding the relative size of the torso to the hips and thighs. The distance from the waist to the hip was too large, so adds extra length overall where it is not needed. Also the calves and feet are too short. The right arm, too, is far too small.

The obvious error here was in trying to add a fully detailed head. It is too large, at the wrong angle, and also just pretty badly drawn. It's a shame, because without it the torso could have worked. The left hand was tricky as only the pinky and next smallest finger were visible so it was always going to look awkwardly undersized. I think the left thigh runs on slightly too long; the knee should be pulled back and the shin allowed to angle more. Another example of the unfortunate tendency to straighten things out rather than capture angles as they are. Quite like the right hand though, for a quick sketch. Just wish I'd left out the head unless I had time to actually draw it as it was.

Next week, I'm going to mix up the techniques again and try using pencil, rather than willow charcoal. Maybe, by using a more forgiving, but more accurate material, I can capture something different rather than the rather heavy going outlines I'm currently finding myself drawing.