Part of what we paid for in the life drawing class was the model fee. And part of what is included in the model fee is the opportunity to practice with the models in one or two labs offered later in the week. In today's lab, Harry was our model. I won't even tell you the first thing I noticed.In the first class our model was Susan. Even though Susan was a thin woman, she was still nothing but curves and squiggles. Harry, on the other hand, was all lines and angles. It took me a while to intellectualize this.
Duh. I had been trying to draw Harry the same way that I had drawn Susan. When I looked at and sketched Susan two days ago, my eyes would sweep over her entire body as I tried to capture the wholeness and beauty of her curves. It was almost a religious experience. But sketching Harry was different. Harry had no curves. It seemed more like an exercise, like doing pages and pages of math homework. It wasn't until the twelfth pose that I realized that this was why it wasn't clicking for me. 
The four poses after that were much better because I started thinking about how to draw Harry with lines and angles instead of squiggles and curves. Even math can be beautiful. Remember that we have 5 to 10, and sometimes 20 minutes to sketch each pose. Also, remember that this is only my second time to do this...the first time being two days ago. Go easy on me.
4 comments:
I think your exercises look great. And it's awesome to hear the way your head wraps around it artistically. Keep 'em coming :)
I'm super impressed. I wouldn't have drawn that well if I had 20 hours to do it, let alone 20 minutes. :)
I think this was addressed in an episode of Seinfeld, but what you have run into is the fact that the bodies of women are beautiful, and in fact works of art. Whereas men, well, we are more function than form, more utility than sublimity. If Song of Solomon didn't have the guy rapturously describing the form of his lover, it would have been a short book of her essentially saying of him things like, "Well, he carries in the groceries for me anyway."
It will be interesting to see what the model is like in today's class....
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