Life Drawing, Gestures
 

Tues is life drawing class and I am usually frustrated because the longest sketch is only 20 minutes, and that is the last one. Mostly we progress from the 60 second to five minutes to 20 minutes.
My best work always seems to be the gesture drawings so I thought I'd share the fun with you all!

I didn't know if I could post these in drawing from life because of the nudity...

Dang, you're getting good, girl!

Nice sketches!

Patricia, these are great. I'm impressed that these all represent, at most, 20 min. poses.

I also like the shot of your feet! ;)

David

Impressive Pat!

Jean

Thanks, Julie (she has sat next to me in life drawing,and experienced my frustrated drawings!) It is getting easier I think because I no longer need to "perform". I now view life drawing as play time.

David, I fully expected one of our acutely aware artists to notice my feet and comment on them! Cute aren't they?!! the longest pose of these is five minutes. My 20 minute sketches always end up trashed.

Thanks Jean!

Very nice, Patty!

Excellent line work, Patricia. Such lovely fluidity, and you express, especially in the centre two, the bulk of the body very satisfactorily with varied strengths of the line.

Pat, These are very nice drawings. I do understand how frustrating it can be when you don't have time to develop your drawing.

I notice that you seem to feel the need to complete the figure and therefore in some parts the line is left rather soft (for example the foot of the top middle drawing). It might be better to try to finish only a fragment and to really see the structure of that fragment, than try to finish the whole thing when you don't have time. Focus on the way the figure balances itself and where the weight is being borne, and the dynamic directions taken by the body parts. If you focus on these things you may not be able to get to the whole thing but you will make the most of the opportunity presented by a quick gesture.

Gesture poses have the potential to provide the opportunity for far more dynamic poses than longer poses, and to observe the body under tension as the model does not have to hold them as long. Keep that in mind.