Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Engaged Couple. Drawing the male and female together.

Our figure drawing group has been very lucky the last few months...we've had several opportunities to work with two models together.  It's always a challenge, not only capturing all of the information of two figure vs one, but the posing of the models is challenging as well.  You want both figures to look great - interesting, well lit - from several vantage points as artists are drawing on all sides, you want them to be comfortable, and, you want them engaged with each other - either thru a hand resting on one another or a turn of the head indicating a conversation.

Last night our models were able to give us all of that - poses that were interesting from every angle and that gave us a connection between the figures.

After a series of (INCREDIBLE!) gesture poses, we worked on this 25 minute pose.


The angles of the arms and legs, the variety of height, the beautiful shadows on the figures and cast onto the floor, the masculinity vs femininity, it was all perfect.

As I looked around the room...everyone had created beautiful work!







For the longer pose, the models utilized a bench and sat together in, to me, was a very protective way.  The male model was perched above, his arm gently holding the female models back, she leaned into his chest as if seeking shelter.



I can't wait to keep working!  I have some amazing reference photos to work from, and I think they will continue my most recent series of figures in shadow.  I'll keep you posted :)

5 comments:

Caroline Peña Bray said...

Great work on the final pose - I really adire the way you communicate everything in this pose with light and shodow. You don't fall back on line to tell the story, it's amazing...The more I paint the more I realise light makes a piece and you're a great person to learn from with this. Thanks for sharing :)

Fay Akers said...

I can only imagine hop challenging that is. You make it seem so simple.
:)

Michelle said...

Those are gorgeous, super-dynamic poses. Such a rare treat to have two models to work from!

Krystyna81 said...

Caroline...you are so correct. And not with just capturing light, but also using it effectively to light the model is important. I've learned so much about using light to really make the models look great, without washing them out (too strong) or losing their form (too soft)

Anonymous said...

What medium do u use for the drawing number 3? how did u get the lightness?