Form, Flow and Force: Life Drawing My Friends

These are the pieces that I've done for the life drawing brief that is given today. We were asked to form a group of 4, and within the group, each of us must take turns to pose, while the rest of people in the group will be sketching the person that's posing. We decided to do it in an empty studio and arrange the space until we got the right set up for life drawing. We ended up with an arrangement that looks like those in auditions; the people drew on a table while the model poses in front of them. We did the drawings according to the sequence of the brief.

During the session, I've tried to use 3 different media to decide which are the ones that I'm comfortable with. I ended up liking to use ink with medium-sized round brush the most because it captures the fluidity of my hand movements perfectly and it is a quick drying medium. Charcoal is my second best medium as I really like the fact that putting a little bit more pressure on it will give distinct bolder strokes, but I'm quite annoyed at it since the drawings smudges easily. Meanwhile, 2B graphite stick is my least favourite because I need to press hard to create darker strokes.

Another thing that I've picked up after I examine closely the drawings that I produced is that the movement that my friends produce has their own distinct characteristics which reflects each of their personality. For instance, Natalia is vivacious, while Tom is dramatic, and Rosie is cartoon-ish.

1. Rhythm is a Dancer

Sequential drawings of different kind of movements. The focus of these drawings is on point of contact at different instances as the actions took place. I tried to experiment different drawing styles to represent the figure, but I decided to stick to use stick-men in the end since stick-men can be easily understood and they are easy to draw.

Normal Walk Cycle

Normal Walk Cycle Continued

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: graphite on A3 cartridge paper

Stiff Walk Cycle

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: graphite on A3 cartridge paper

Walking on a Tightrope Walk Cycle

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: graphite on A3 cartridge paper

2. Like a Puppet on a String

The models took into account squash and stretch as they did the poses. The shrinking sequence is my favourite piece because it looks like Photoshop's onion skin effect in which the opacity of the moving subject increases according to the order of the frames.

Shrinking

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: charcoal on A2 cartridge paper

Expanding

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: ink on A2 cartridge paper

Cartoon Walk

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: ink with brush on A2 cartridge paper

Crab Walk

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: ink with brush on A2 cartridge paper

 Charles Darwin Evolution Walk

Time: 10 seconds per pose

Medium: charcoal on A2 cartridge paper

Throwing and Falling

Time: 15 Seconds per pose (with some additional touch ups)
Medium: Graphite on A2 cartridge paper

Squat and jump

Time: 15 Seconds per pose (with some additional touch ups)
Medium: Graphite on A2 cartridge paper

Throwing a Ball

Time: 15 Seconds per pose
Medium: Marker on A2 cartridge paper

Time: 15 Seconds per pose
Medium: Graphite on A2 cartridge paper

3. Ah, Push It!

A study of forces, pressure and line density from longer push and pull poses. For some of these, I drew the rough sketch to get the gist of where the pressure is placed on before I started drawing the final piece.

Pulling a Chair (Rough)

Pulling a Chair

Time: 7 minutes

Medium: charcoal on A3 cartridge paper (Rough) & ink with brush on A3 cartridge paper
Pressure is put on the right leg.

Pushing a Table (Rough)

Pushing a Table

Time: 7 minutes

Medium: charcoal on A3 cartridge paper (Rough) & ink with brush on A3 cartridge paper
Pressure is put on the hands.

Exaggerated Table Pushing

Time: 7 minutes

Medium: charcoal on A3 cartridge paper
Pressure is put on the right leg.

Pushing against the Window

Time: 5 minutes
Medium: ink with brush on A3 cartridge paper
Pressure is put on the right leg.

Pulling the Curtain

Time: 5 minutes
Medium: ink with brush on A3 cartridge paper
Pressure is widely spread across the body since the action is less arduous as compared to others.

Dramatic Window Pushing

Time: 5 minutes
Medium: charcoal on A3 cartridge paper
Pressure is put on the right leg.

4. Strike a Pose

Time: 20 minutes
Medium: charcoal on A1 cartridge paper

Time: 20 minutes

Medium: charcoal on A2 cartridge paper

Time: 20 minutes

Medium: charcoal on A2 cartridge paper

Time: 20 minutes

Medium: brush pen on A2 cartridge paper