This project comprised two exercises, which I completed in a sequence during several days.
Exercise: Essential shapes
I made several drawings for this exercise. The first three were in charcoal on brown A3 sized paper.
Then I continued with a 2B pencil for four more drawings in my A4 sketchbook. I stayed with myself as a model.
With the charcoal sketches, I felt roughly comfortable with the instruction to look for basic shapes like cylinders or cubes. But the more I drew, the less I was able to apply that abstract notion of form and felt more and more frustrated by the artificiality of the task. It just didn’t feel right. I liked the task of drawing my figure in quick sketches but at the same time felt irritated by trying to follow the strange instruction.
I think I took home the experience of simplification and that this works quite well to make brief sketches.
Exercise: Essential elements
Task: Quick tonal studies of 6 poses (10 minutes each) with strong directional light on the model.
I started this series with a thick charcoal stick, about 1.2 cm in diameter, on A3 paper. I wanted to make use of the really black tones and the shades of grey that can be produced with charcoal. I chose a simple standing pose and drew in front of the mirror with the sketchpad on the easel.
I think the drawing is not bad with respect to pose and proportions, and also in getting some really dark and really light tones. But the charcoal stick was too thick in relation to the space on the paper sheet and so it is all a bit too gross. Also from the composition it might have been better to include the binding elements between the black background areas of the windows (to the left) and the terrace door (to the right, behind the easel silhouette). The background was light, but not indicating anything of it leaves the figure a bit lost in space.
I chose watersoluble pencil for the next pose, again on A3 paper. Here the proportions are weaker, I think the upper half of the figure is too large compared to the legs. But this drawing is better than the first with respect to three dimensionality and tonal shades. There’s even some resemblance with the traits of a face, even if it doesn’t resemble me.
Drawing with the sketchpad in the hand quickly becomes painful and I thought a smaller paper size might be easier to handle. So I switched to A4.
The next pose (pose 3) was kneeling on the floor, looking at me from the side, with the sketchpad before my knees. I used a pressed charcoal block for this, drawing by putting it onto the side. This was a nice technique to create shaded areas. The proportions in this drawing are quite good. Tonality is not very much worked out, and I did not draw face marks for fear to spoil what I had. The next one (pose 4) was made with charcoal as well, but used with the tip. I think the tonality is well done in the upper part of the body and the face has improved. But the perspective does not work for the legs.
The two final drawings were made with standard 2B pencil. The first one was a repetition of the previous pose, I wanted to give it another try for the perspective foreshortening of the legs. But I found it very difficult to draw. Nice about this drawing is that my cat Gina sat on my lap for a brief moment, and I included her in the drawing. Then the final one was a good pose with strong tonal differences, but as a sitting position it became quickly quite uncomfortable which is why I hurried up in the end and spoiled it a bit.
Overall I liked the exercise and was at ease with drawing quickly, although most studies may have taken a bit longer than 10 minutes. Difficulties were to analyse the tonal areas. I was dressed all black which is difficult to draw in lamp light.