Figures

Attending my Figure Drawing session today, I felt like I was on a roll with it. Some days I feel like a hack. Days like today I'm convinced I'm in the moment, and I know just how to do this. Believe me, I'd love to feel that way every time I draw. You can see the new figures I included on my web page "Portraits and Figures". I try to add the best new ones each time I go, and sometimes I eliminate a couple that have been in that slide show on my website for a long time.

I find it really satisfying to attend and just lose myself in the drawing process. Of course, I also enjoy the cameraderie of joining others in class, and also the conversation with my peers. Most of the individuals attending the sessions draw quite well and are knowledgeable about figure drawing and art in general. Some have been involved in careers as automotive designers or illustraters, some as art teachers in public schools. Several had jobs as commercial artists of varying types, and there are a few architects. They use the class time in different ways. Some concentrate on drawing a portrait head of the model. Others concentrate on drawing the torso, or a particular limb and its problem areas, a wrist, an ankle, whatever they wish to devote their time to.  It's pretty silent between breaks, when we are involved in drawing. The individual concentration is pretty intense while getting the job done in a pleasing and competent manner. The poses are timed, varying from 2 minutes to 1 hour in duration. When I leave the studio I'm generally exhausted, but I feel great! Like I climbed the mountain! So satisfied!

I'm adding an earlier figure drawing below, done in my undergrad years. Some of the materials I worked with at that time, no longer feel comfortable to me. I was thinking today, as I drew, that I want the medium to feel like an extension of my arm and of my thought process. I want the images to flow onto the paper quite naturally, almost as if I'm "thinking" them onto the page. Mostly on the longer poses I'm working with liquid acrylics and a couple of responsive brushes. My exploration is for the individual to be expressed onto the paper almost by magic.

Scroll down to see the charcoal figure I added from those early days in college.