Sketching from the Male Nude Model

Such a great night of drawing from the live model on Wednesday!  We were very lucky to have one of the best male models around - awesome gesture poses, incredibly inventive.  And I wasn't even torturing him this time!  He chose the poses himself :)

After a few quick gestures, we had one ten minute pose, a very complex relationship between his twisted upper body, his outstretched arms that were supported by a pole, and the dynamic angles at which his knees came toward us - lots of challenges!  I wish I had drawn this slightly smaller (or used a bigger piece of paper!) so I could have included his foot and upper hand.  It was a lot of different relationships to get right.  I loved the dramatic light from the left.

This was an awesome 30 minute pose.  Not only for the great negative and positive shapes formed by his body, but the dramatic lighting and interesting cast shadow.   The shadow was very important in establishing his weight and the direction of the spotlight.  The only spot I don't like right now is the relationship between his chin and his shoulder - too close in value.

For the longest pose of the light, we moved the light to two different sources (both of wich blinded at least one artist who was trying to draw, but o well - the light looked good!) One was high and over his left shoulder, the other was on the floor, throwing light upwards onto his torso creating very complex patterns on his chest.

I was working with charcoal pencil on a tan piece of paper, adding light cream and a bit of white towards the end.  I like the change in height from the left shoulder to the right, and the way he is sitting into his left hip.  The sense of weight on the chair feels pretty good.  Again, I wish I had worked larger, but I'm glad I captured all of the back.

You can see more of my drawings of the male nude model in my Fine Art on Etsy shop.