Life Drawing week 8 (after a massive hiatus!)

I've finally returned to life drawing class after, I think, almost a year! It feels very much like starting again from scratch, but I think there was some decent work this week. We started with a ten minute pose (although that included getting set up etc.):

Overall, not bad for such a long layoff. Obviously I didn't get down to the lower legs, feet, or to detailing the hand. The knees and calves were very rushed so are really just place holders, and the right thigh was troublesome.

Next was a couple of of short gesture poses, which instead of using to rough out a full figure, I used to capture quick important details:

The top pose is kind of a mess but at least captures the twist in the torso to some extent. The bottom pose suffers from poor perspective with the lower legs again, and in fact overall has issues of proportion.

After this came a longer seated pose before the break, around 20 minutes:

The most glaring issue is the mess of a left foot, which is a shame as if I'd managed to use the ankle to suggest the twist in the lower leg it could have worked quite well. Unfortunately the class was ridiculously full and I could barely see it! The back of the knee, with more detail, could have worked. The torso has issues as regards the shoulder placement and effect that has on the back, but could have been refined by bringing the right arm in a bit and having more detail on that elbow. I do like the transition from hip to upper thigh on the left leg though, I think it captured the muscle tensing quite well. I was aiming for a kind of sketchy, hightened approach rather than a strict realism which I think the piece sort of has. It will need work, though.
After this, we restarted the second half with a 10 minute pose:

 

 The pose itself was quite unusual, given how little of the model I could see, so I started from the face and worked outwards, trying to use the minimum of information to suggest the pose. The left shoulder is too rounded, and the upper arm sits strangely on it. The left hand is too big, and the right hand barely made it on to the page. The upper right arm is too small, so the foreshortening needed to be better indicated. Still, it was OK for such a short pose.
Next up were a few short gesture poses, only two of which I really got anything on the page for:

 

Due to the layout of the room some poses were very difficult to see. I quickly sketched this in as I intended to exaggerate the perspective as a bit of an experiment. I would have liked a bit more time to get this pose down as it was very interesting, but, alas, it was only a 3 minute pose. Next was a slightly longer pose, I think 7 or 8 minutes:

I was pretty happy with this. The right thigh is a little narrow and having time to try and at least sketch in the top of the left shin would have really helped it be more evocative but for the short time I had, I was pleased with what I came up with. Finally, a 25 minute sitting pose:

Both models were seated high for us to sketch but given how slow I am at this, I thought it was best to concentrate on one! Perhaps the waist is a bit narrow, although the model was very slim so it seemed to check out at the time. The angle of the right forearm was a trial to get right and I still dont; think it is, so it and the right hand look small. The left leg looks too big, too high and dominant, but I think the pose shifted slightly along the line and I didn't adjust to it properly. I used a different technique here than elsewhere though, drawing out in pencil first, and using a charcoal pencil, grey tones compressed charcoal and willow charcoal in various places to get the effect I wanted quickly. When time was drawing to a close I quickly marked out where I wanted to shade and filled some in when I returned home as well, again, time was not on my side.

Not bad though, there are two or three pieces here I like and would say are better than previous work I have done in the class, which is pretty decent considering how out of practice I am. Hopefully this will be much more regular now.