Drawings and Paintings from the live model. Two weeks to catch up on!

Where does the time go?  How did I get so far behind...

Last Wednesday we had a fantastic male model for our evening group.  After a round of gestures that left all of us exhausted from trying to draw as fast as we could, catching every twist and turn and muscle and shadow, we slowed down with a 20 minute drawing.  These are all charcoal on white 14" x 17" paper.

We then moved on to a tricky pose where our model was lying on his back, but his torso was lifted and twisted, as he reached above his head with one arm and held on the his ankle with the other.  It looked awesome, and there were some amazing shadows, but once we realized he was losing all feeling in his shoulder we moved onto another pose!

We ended the evening with a classic standing pose, amazing lighting, a great time to just slow down and capture all of the subtleties of light and shadow.

This week we had a lovely female model who also warmed up everyone with a series of two minute gestures, then we worked on a 15 minute pose.  This is nupastel on brick red colourfix paper.

We ended with a 2 hours pose with lots of drapery and a warm spotlight.  This is a 9" x 12" panel, acrylic paint.  I totally neglected her front leg, so that's first on my list to resolve.

After class the model and I worked together for a few minutes, playing an adult version of "dress up" with an awesome red tulle crinoline I found at the antique store and a sassy black and white striped vest I found at a consignment shop.  Along with the picture I took of the ballerina last week, I have about 13 new drawings in my head...I can't wait to get started!  A preview of the outfit...