Learning to draw again

10/31/10

I have been in a low in regards to figure drawings lately. I don't know if I'm just burned out between drawing and working, but I have not been very satisfied with my drawing progress. Looking back at my work over the years I'm not sure I have improved or achieved any break through.
 
On one of the Wednesday nights when I hang out at the Hornet (local bar/restaurant) with my art friends after a drawing session, we looked at some of the drawings in the book Classical Life Drawing Studio. The book is about the teachings at the New York Art Students League and showed art works from students in the past. I was complaining to my friend Larry that my drawings are nowhere close to the drawings in the book. Larry consoled me by saying that the drawing are probably over several sessions and I wouldn't have time in our 3 hour sessions to get to that level of finish.
 
Larry made me curious about what can I do if I was not limited by time. I bought a reference photo from posespace.com and spend several days drawing the pose. Some days I would spend couple of hours and other days I would just spend a minute correcting something I see. Here is the result of the study. Even though I'm still not satisfied with the result, I learned a lot from the exercise. Having unlimited time allowed me to be more accurate. I was able to measure a lot more and see how different parts of the body related to each other. I also had the time to evaluate values and make sure they are correct. I learned the choice of paper is so important. Unfortunately I picked my favorite Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper which I fought with all the way thru the drawing. The paper is just too toothy for carbon pencil. It was incredibly hard to get a smooth tone. I was fed up and ended up not polishing the drawing to the degree that I wanted. However, overall I thought it was still a good learning experience. I would like to try it again with perhaps charcoal pencil and Fabriano Tiziano paper.

 


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Hia William , I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this , I think this is a splended effort and a shame you never got the feet done !! but I also know to well, that overwhelming feeling that hits in not finishing artwork also ...:)
-- Sandra, 12/22/10

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William Char's portrait and figurative art work


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