Tag Archives: figure drawing Bruges

Figure Drawing, August 20, 2018

Leave a reply

Tonight we had one of our regular models, Lisa (or possibly Melissa?, I might have previously misheard her name). Anyway, she’s a good model – and was in her chops tonight. What makes a model good? A feel for interesting poses – and of course – the ability to hold them. What makes for an interesting pose? Well, a little bit of twist goes a long way. It’s not necessary, but if over an evening of about 15 poses there’s not some definitive variety of movement in the torso I have a hard time. (You’d be surprised, some models just move their hands a little for a new pose and think it’s sufficient for generating interest!).

So Melissa was on. She has exceptionally thick hips and thighs (the elephant woman!) and always wears her glasses (the glasses lady!). And I had a good (chakra) night too – the tactile warmth and energy of chalk and pastel on the paper fed into my searching circles, allowing the figure to slowly emerge. I definitely had some throw-aways but amazingly, many of the drawings turned out well. The final drawing of the evening is the featured image here at the top of the page. From my position, it involved direct foreshortening – which is always a challenge  – but tonight I just let the chalk follow the sensuous curves. Hooray for bio-feedback!

Five fifteen minute figure studies. Conte pencil and conté crayon on tinted pastel paper. 32.7 x 50 cm. or 13 x 19.75 in.

Four four minute gesture studies. Black charcoal on tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm or 13.75 x 19.75

Figure Drawing July 30, 2018

1 Reply

Tonight we had Ina, originally from South America, so Spanish speaking. She is together with a Belgian man with whom they have two children. But the curious thing about her is that she, husband and two children took off from here about two years ago to live on a sailboat and sail around the world. Well, she’s back now. The sailing adventure did not go exactly as planned. 😉  But they are still free spiriting it around Europe living in a camper van and sailing a few months out of the year. So much for the story, here are a few drawings from the evening.

Four fifteen minute studies. Conté crayon and pencil on tinted pastel paper. 32.7 x 50 cm or 13 x 19.75 in.

Two four minute gesture drawings. Charcoal on brown tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm. or 13.75 x 19.75.

 

Figure Drawing July 23, 2018

Leave a reply

Tonight we had Eva again. One of our more regular models. I find her challenging because her skin tones and hair tones both veer towards the cool range chromatically, and for me, drawing the figure is all about creating warmth on the paper.

Tonight (as last week) I experimented with using basic charcoal on the 15 minute poses to very lightly sketch in the figure on the paper first.  The point for me experientially is the tactile experience of charcoal on paper. It conveys far more sensation, creating a sort of virtuous (tactile) circle. Once the circle is warm – and the figure has started to emerge – do I segue into the pastels: conté pencils or crayons. Don’t get me wrong, they are tactile, too, just not as intense feeling-wise as plain ol’ charcoal.

Below four fifteen minute poses. Conte crayons and conté pencil on toned pastel paper. 32.7 x 50 cm or 13 x 19 3/4 in.

Below three four minute poses. Charcoal on brown tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm. or 13.75 x 19.75 in.

Figure Drawing July 2, 2018

Leave a reply

One of our regulars tonight, Eva, the lady of the black Calvin Klein underwear.

Either she or I were not feeling very inspired, as no fifteen minutes studies made the grade.

Here below are four four minute gesture poses.

Charcoal on brown tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm. or 13 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.

 

 

Figure Drawing June 25, 2018

Leave a reply

This model is one of the regulars but who I personally haven’t seen in awhile.

She doesn’t tend toward over-athletic poses but holds whatever pose she does take rather well. Tonight she had a little difficulty for I become sad (Bruno always checks with them) when we see a model begin to shake 10 minutes into a pose, as they come to realize the difficulty of what seemed to be so simple.

Four fifteen minute poses. Still experimenting with pastel highlights, using warm sepia or brown for the shadows. Conte crayon and/or pencil on toned pastel paper. 32.5 x 50 cm or 13 x 19 3/4 in.

Two four minute gesture poses. Charcoal on brown tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm. or 13 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.

Figure Drawing April 30, 2018

Leave a reply

Back after spring break. And I, head deep in writing my thesis, happy for a-no-mind interlude. The featured image here reflects my continuing experimentation with colorful pastels – and this exciting dark brown-gray (umber) for the skin-tone shadows. Wow!

Of course, it also helps to have a good model, who takes interesting poses.

Two fifteen minute studies. Conté crayon and conté pencil on toned pastel paper. 32.7 x 50 cm or 13 x 19 3/4 in.

Four four minute gesture studies. Charcoal on brown tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm or 13.75 x 19 3/4 in.

Figure Drawing March 26, 2018

Leave a reply

The model tonight, I think her name is Lisa, likes to wear glasses when she poses. She is a good model, also with an interesting shape: thin torso with thick legs and buttocks. There is always something stable, grounding and elephant-like in drawing such figures.

Tonight I had better luck with the four minute gesture poses. Below here are five. Charcoal on tinted brown paper. 35  x 50 cm or 13.75 x 19.75 in.

  

Figure Drawing – March 5, 2018

2 Replies

Haven’t seen this model come for awhile. She is younger than most, so that just means that potentially she  might take more energetic positions. Well, that wasn’t really the case tonight. Still, it turned out to be a productive evening.

Three fifteen minute poses, Conté crayon touched up with conté pencil on toned pastel drawing paper. 32.7 x 50 cm or 13 x 19.75 in.

Four four minute gesture studies. Charcoal on brown tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm or 13.75 x 19.75 cm.

Figure Drawing February 26, 2018

Leave a reply

Fantastic model tonight. How could we be so lucky to have two great male models (almost) in a row (see February 12th)? For the model tonight seemed to know intuitively what poses create true interest. Weight changes. Tension – and/or lack of it. Being comfortable in your own skin. Well, OK, I was also experimenting – with some success – with my new skin tone pastels. Maybe both factors coming together?

Below six (count ’em, six) fifteen minute figure studies. (that means that almost every one turned out interesting, since we usually do seven in total). Conté crayon with conté pencil on tinted pastel paper. 32.7 x 50 cm. or 13 x 19.75 in.

Three gesture drawings. Charcoal on tinted brown sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm. or 13.75 x 19.75 in.