Life Drawing Dabblings

During the Christmas break, I found a few spare minutes to attend some drop-in life drawing sessions.

It was a good way to loosen up after the very intensive final weeks of last term. Now onto the new term tomorrow!

Walking with the animals

The LAS crew  braved a chilly 2 degree celsius at the London Zoo today, all in a bid to study animal movement in preparation for the impending exercise on the four-legged walk cycle, which we'll be covering this week.

It was freezing,  and most of the animals agreed that it wasn't the best day for the zoo, preferring to stay hidden in the warmth of a toasty corner and sleeping the cold away. I tried to track down some of the four-legged animals in the warmer parts of the zoo, and managed to study some llamas, lions and tigers (sleeping), giraffes, okapi, zebras, and a couple of  sturdy looking camels.

The best thing about observing animals from life is that you can really get to notice their different characters and how they hold themselves. Like humans, some are shy, others inquisitive, then there are the bold and the beautiful. There's a whole world of interesting characters to witness and explore.

The main aim of today though was to closely watch the animal's movement and try to imagine what is going on inside with bone structure. This was not so different from our first life drawing session where we drew the model and placed the skeleton inside. Fundamentally, once you know the inside mechanics, it makes it easier to draw the figure more accurately from memory.

I've included a few rough sketches below, where I've attempted to consider the mechanics, as well as movement and form in the various animals.

Giraffes

Giraffes

Llamas

Llamas

Sleeping Tiger

Going with the flow

Today marked the final day of our intensive life drawing component, which has been running one full-day per week over the past 5 weeks. It has been exhilarating, exhausting and occasionally down-right frustrating, but I have loved every second of it and will miss this time spent studying the human form, it's movement and rhythm, as well as the stories it has to tell.

We spent the day recapping some of the exercises we had covered over the past 4 weeks, paying close attention to how we are telling the story through framing, viewpoint, lighting, texture and gesture. The main emphasis was to 'go with the flow' and focus on the details later.

It might be the end of the life drawing classes, however Mary-Clare Foa urged us to forge on with our sketchbooks in hand and continue to find inspiration in the world around us, proclaiming that everything has a story, context and value, it is our jobs to explore recognise these things and explore them in our drawings.

This perspective thrusts the viewer in a position of power and tells a story of subversion.

 Transforming the life model's pose into a scene of loneliness, despair and desolation.

  Creating more scenes and stories utilising the model's pose as a starting point.

Exercises in getting a hat to sit well on a head and exploring characterisation in gesture.

A venture into a deep dark scary place, inspired by the model's pose and expression.

This scene was developed from the life model continuously moving into different poses and wearing different expressions. Behind her was a dvd projection of filmed images, which inspired the background and gave context.

This is the same exercise as above. I found it a really useful way of coming up with interesting narratives and characters, and might have to rope my friends into doing some performing for me in the future!

Another fairly scary/depressive scene as inspired by the model. I probably haven't included enough of the happier ones, but be assured there were plenty of those as well, so it's not all doom and gloom!

Thinking like a camera

It was the fourth week of our life drawing classes yesterday. We began by revisiting the figure in space, drawing it from various angles and with context to its surroundings and perspective boundaries, reiterating the importance of drawing using a type of triangulation method.

Again following on from previous lessons we looked at the figure from extreme perspective, this time focusing on the head and neck. Mary Clare reminded us that it is vital for us to be able to draw from every angle possible, as it will free us up to explore all kinds of storytelling techniques - we need to be able to think like a camera.

Our photographic gaze then lead us into capturing facial various facial expressions, the model posing each expression very briefly to keep it as fresh and true as possible.

Next on the agenda was framing and composition. We were asked to draw a frame for our drawing and encouraged to select a part of the figure/scene before us to feature in our frame. I found it was best to start off with a thumbnail first to help cement ideas, so I could approach the drawing with a plan.

Finally we got to mix our observational drawing with our imagination, using the figure acting before us and creating a scene or story by adding another character or imagining a scene for her. I particularly enjoyed this part of the session, it was great fun to transform the ideas acted out by the model into my own stories.

The drama of life drawing continues...

Over the past two weeks in our life drawing sessions we have been looking at placing the figure in a way that accentuates character traits and story. In week 2 it was exploring the figure as a 3 dimensional whole, looking at dramatic tonal values as well as the changing figure in perspective.

Week 3 saw us capturing impressions of mood expression through facial and body movements. We were encouraged to find and draw the rhythm of overall body movement, which mainly involved finding the line of action and draw its synchronised action. We also explored the flow of the body in actions such as sitting and reaching and looked at drawing the model in extreme perspective and how this type of framing effects the viewer's experience.

The Tweatre

The last couple of months have seen a surge of activity, which has kept me on my toes and left whatever semblance of a social life for dead.

One of the projects I've been involved in was putting together a competition entry for the V&A Inspired By competition. Drawing my inspiration from the Theatre Collections and the recent Decode exhibition housed at the V&A, I created a 3D model that explores what I've recognised as an analogous relationship between theatre and social networking. In my investigation of the collections I discovered that both worlds are fundamentally performance based and rely on audience feedback for success. I had a bit of fun with the idea and decided to create a new space that merged both worlds.

In a nutshell, the Tweatre is a theatre set, the two profiled figures on the outside are there to make you feel as part of an audience (and also reference the standard profile pic silhouettes). When you peer into the opera glasses you become the viewer - it references the voyeuristic nature of theatre/social networking. The inside is the 'social networking performance', the birds (coloured with http text) use their display feathers (profile pics) to woo and outdo each other, they are tweeting dramatic updates to get attention, around a wallpaper tree (networks) in a reflective, indeterminate space (the net).

I have included a few photographs and a video link, although unfortunately it has been created to 'experience' in person, and doesn't translate as well in photographs and video.

Life to the next level

Today was session two of 'Studio Tate', which is a series of four full-day life drawing sessions at the Tate Modern run by London Drawing. Each session is themed, this week's being tone. Every lesson begins with a re-invigoration of traditional drawing techniques then introduces alternative ways of describing the body, keeping the theme of the day in mind.

Our journey into tone took us from pencil and charcoal mark-making, into collage and finally manipulating light and shadow. The image above shows my experimentation during the final stage. We only had 45 minutes, so there wasn't much time to think about getting the proportions perfect, but it was great to mess around in this new territory and start thinking of ideas for other applications.

Moving from the traditional into more experiential techniques, really demonstrated how the first was a fundamental step into understanding the form, whereas the latter leads to a more creative and original approach to problem-solving and describing.

Also, I found that the best thing about working in such short time frames with unfamiliar techniques, is that it frees you up to make mistakes and let loose, which can sometimes lead to wonderful suprises.

Life transformation

Last Saturday morning I ventured out of bed early to get across to the Battersea Arts Centre for a bit of life drawing with a theatrical twist. Previous experience prepared me mentally for a day of experimentation movement, light, sound and their interaction with the human form.

Two very different spaces had been prepared for our pleasure, one being a 3D collage of models, objects and projected imagery and the other featured a performance art piece by Philip Li.

I was delighted when I discovered that Philip Li's narrative dealt with the transformation of his body using earthenware clay, especially because the process of metamorphosis has captured my intrigue over the past few months and consequently a theme I have been consciously and subconsciously exploring in my work.

My interpretation of Philip's performance was a process of breaking free from past strongholds to embrace influences and experience over time, later emerging to become free and more fully formed.

Drawing from a live performance was a challenge. Constant movement meant that you needed to look towards expressing a snapshot of the larger picture to convey your story. I focused my attention on the legs. This was the main area of transformation, and also represents the notion of freedom of movement. By focusing on the different stages of the transformation of the leg, I aim to convey this gradual process of renewal.

Drawing with drama

I've always considered drawing and drama as related creative concepts; however, have never experienced both in the same room at the same time. A week has almost gone past since I participated in the unique creative life drawing concept, labelled 'The Drawing Theatre', but it has been one of the events that has featured as a highlight of the overall week, and I'm sure it will take its rightful place in my memory for some time to come.

The workshop is described by London Drawing, as a fusion of visual performance and drawing, combining elements of movement, light and sound.

Unpredictable movements, progressing across a theatrically lit space prohibited the creation of exacting representation of the figures. It was more a practice in capturing the contortions and connections between the two bodies and how they interacted and progressed into space. Lines became loose and shapes became free.

My drawing style is largely geared towards capturing detail and finding nooks and crannies in everything I study, so this was a good exercise in breaking away from the familiar and loosening up my approach. I've included a couple of works completed during the session.