Chalks and Pencil

I found chalk and pencil quite hard to use for mulitple reasons. Chalk, I found difficult because I found it harder to control than charcoal in terms of how easily it blurs and how hard it is to get defined lines. Pencil, I found difficult for exactly the opposite reason, I found it really hard to get strong tones, and my drawings ended up quite bare and plain.

Colour

We started using colour in life drawing, with different inks and paints. At first I struggled, but after I learnt to apply blues to the shadows, and different intensities of the browns to the light areas, the figure started to take shape and look more contoured.

Working With Tone

 

 

We started to work with tone in the life drawing classes, I found it quite difficult at first, but then learnt how to identify the places that had the most light, and the shadows, and began to transfer this into my drawing.

First Life Drawings

At the beginning of life drawing I had never done anything like it before, and was completely mortified when we were told to 'just have a go' to begin with, I had no idea where to start! But we were then taught different ways to measure the figure, such as the pencil technique (measuring heads into the figure) and then I started to get the hang of it. The proportions of the figures I was drawing started to get a lot more accurate, and I was also taught to draw with the edge of the charcoal rather than the tip is it makes it easier to work out the correct angles of curves.

Interesting publication about life drawing.

I had some anxieties about life drawing on Monday, so I did what most do -consulted google on what to expect. I came across a website ran by an artist called Katherine Tyrrell, and she writes small publications on different things that may concern other artists, from blogging etiquette to life drawing.
It gave me a very clear idea of what to expect Monday, also some tips on how to get more from the day, and even advice on how to progress within life drawing to experiment more once I am more confident.
Below is a link to the page of publications, all free to download:
http://www.pastelsandpencils.com/makingamark.html