life drawin eval

Life Drawing Evaluation

When I started life drawing I had the basic knowledge just to draw what I saw. However, this resulted in my images being too small or too large on the page, limbs that were out of proportion, and overall poor technique.

We began with charcoal which I liked working with as it was easy to create the line and also easy to rub off the page. The main thing I learnt from life drawing was how to measure the heads of the life model and then translate this onto the page so that I could make sure the figure fit into the page and was the size I wanted it to be. It was also easier to get everything the right size in the drawing.

We spent a lot of time mastering how to draw the figure in proportion when the life model was at a certain angle so that a certain part of the body was closer to you and therefore larger in the drawing. This was very difficult at first, but I picked up certain techniques, such as measuring the angles at certain points on the body, but I also really enjoyed the challenge. When I finally got the hang of it, it really boosted my confidence and I felt like I could now draw anything and it would look really good.

Within the classes we were taught different drawing techniques, such as how to create tone which I wasn’t very confident with at the start. However, when I figured out that I had to use the charcoal in a certain way so that I could achieve a skin like gradient and tone – I was very impressed with the results.

When it came down to using colour, I was uncertain how it would turn out as I don’t use much colour and I certainly didn’t know how to translate it onto the figure. However, I was pleasantly surprised, as we did several practise pieces, to find that I was applying all the techniques I knew about tonality and it looked great with colour!

The main thing I enjoyed about life drawing was seeing the steady but definite improvement in my drawings as we practised more and more. It has really shown me that you can get better and achieve any piece as long as you keep trying.