Quick Studies

Quick studies allow me to really understand the shapes that make up the form of the body. It’s useful to understand the basics and proportions that make up the body and building up my drawing skills. For the first part of this exercise I was worried about drawing within a two minute time frame. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and this is initially felt like no time at all, until I started drawing.

2 minute charcoal sketches

I had my model relax on a bed, partially covered by some loose fabric. I thought it would make for a relaxed pose that would make for a great composition. For this first piece I struggled with the 2 minute time frame, but I got used to this as I continued throughout the exercise. I began from the chest and branched outwards. Using line, I formed his chest and arms, leaving the head for last. I also branched out to drawing some of the surroundings to fill the space, and make him feel like he is in a space of his own. This first attempt gave me a good idea of how fast to draw and where to maintain my focus in the drawing. It was good fun and really helped highlight what sort of shapes I need to draw to depict his body.

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For my second and third drawings, I think I got too close to really explore the body shape and how the neck and head really fit in. His head looks a little too big, but I can assure you my model does have a rather larger head (Not shaming him, he has a nice head). think I improved on my final two drawings, the body shape feels cohesive and the proportions look accurate. I really enjoyed working with the shapes of the arms and torso, how they fit together and and bend and move. The arms play a part in the torso shape, whether he is stretching out his chest by reaching out his arm or relaxing his hands onto his belly, I love drawing out the curves that make up those shapes and is something I’d love to explore in more detail. I found I enjoyed working with the limited time frame and seeing what I can create in a limited amount of time.

10 minute sketches

I found I enjoyed the 10 minute sketches more than the 2 minute ones. It was too long a time frame where I over worked a drawing. I was still loosely sketching at a fast pace, but I had more time to accurately depict the body proportions, and also his facial proportions as well. 2 minutes clearly was not enough time to make it clear who my model is. I decided to do 5 sketches to really explore different poses before going for the larger sketches in different mediums. I wanted to really get to grips with capturing my model in charcoal first before moving on. I went for a thinner charcoal stick this time to really be able to show the finer side of it.

My first drawing is definitely an improvement from the 2 minute sketches, but a lot of work still needed to be done to really improve. The face, although is better than my attempts within a 2 minute time frame, still needs work. Since I was working with an almost side profile, it wasn’t the easiest to accurately capture in a 10 minute time frame. I am however really happy with how his body came out. I think I got the proportions accurate with his arm and chest, but I am unsure about how well I did with capturing his legs peeping out of the blanket at the bottom. I had more time to create a sense of place with the background, capturing a lot of the bed, though I feel I may have slightly squished it in. I really like what I managed to do with my use of tone, I think it really brings the composition together.

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I really love how these came out, and I think you can see my skills adapting to the time limit, capturing more and maintaining a focus on the body before looking to the face and surroundings. I love the fluid style of drawing I have used in order to depict what I need to in a short amount of time. The rushed shading adds character and a personal touch to the drawings which I rather like.

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I think I really got to grips with this exercise and drawing within a limited timeframe. I also love how these 10 minute sketches came out. I think my final sketch I missed out some shading in the arm pit which is a shame, and since I drew live there’s no reference image to go back to to fix it. It is something to keep in mind moving forward, I should take a step back once in a while to take a look at how the bigger picture is forming, something which I didn’t think to do with racing against the clock. At this point I felt ready and I wanted to try switching it up and see how I would manage tackling these poses in different media. First, I wanted to try toned lead and see if I could make a more interesting drawing, while sticking to a similar drawing medium.

I really like how the different colours work together in this piece. I think it makes for a more immersive drawing. The browns work well with the grey lead I used for the model, I think it really helps to highlight and draw in the viewers focus on my model. By using browns, the planes and shapes of the body are accentuated. I noticed through my drawings my model has lines that make up his chest which help me to identify the shape much better while drawing (a cross shape [t} ) . This cross shape also helps to identify which way his torso is positioned, whether he is stretching or relaxed.
I had become rather stuck on using dry, pencil mediums so I wanted to also have a go drawing with something more fluid. I think a fluid medium would work great for depicting dynamic movement. I decided on using walnut ink as it is great for layering and building up a sense of tone as well as being a strong medium for line.

I think with this drawing I was able to create a great sense of environment that felt connected with the body, however I do think my bed railing could improve, but the pillow looks great leaning on the model. I think the layering of the brown ink works well showcasing the tone and curves of the models torso and I’m really happy with how it came out. I used a thick amount of ink for outlining the shapes of his arms and body to really identify the shapes I was working with and I am happy with how that looks too. The face isn’t the best, the detail could use a little work, but hopefully without a 10 minute time frame this shouldn’t be such an issue. With the loose, fluid properties of ink it’s hard to control for finer details when rushed or against the clock.

I enjoyed these exercises and feel I have gained a better understanding of the shapes and planes of the body, and how to capture them, but also the importance of the surrounding environment. It adds depth to the drawings and a sense of reality. You can relate to an action taking place in an environment, I feel its harder to relate to a body or person depicting in a white blank space, as in life we are always surrounded by an environment, a blank space adds distance from real life and real experiences. With my intent to romanticise the body rather than objectify, I want to create an intimate closeness with my model and this can be emphasised and created with a relatable environment.
Furthermore, in terms of my media, I wanted to try and combine fluid mediums with dry. I thought that blocking in colours with watercolour, and going over top with coloured pencils could help eliminate the white spaces that often appear under pencil shading and help create a more vivid drawing with my use of colour. This will allow me to really experiment with my use of colour as I feel I stick to a ‘safer’ monochromatic palette a lot. It might be time for me to break that.