Life drawing 3, Dec 8, 2018

With my new job, now I feel more relaxed about spending some money on extracurricular activities :). I went back to life drawing yesterday. James came along as well. It was his first life drawing session. Until yesterday, he only used reference photos found on the web for figure painting practice.

The studio I went to a couple of months ago is now closed due to lease termination. The teacher recommended all the students to go to Alley 97, a 4-story old building serving as a cafe, a gallery and an art studio. The studio is much smaller than the previous art studio. You can see the model closely, if there isn't too many attendees.

Although I have been drawing people on the MRT 5 days a week for a few weeks, I still felt a bit rusty at the beginning of the session. Somehow it took me a few attempts to get the proportion close (I think it's still a bit off). I forgot what Charles Reid said about cast shadows. I thought I would be able to make 2 drawings but it still took me a good whole session to complete 1 painting.

I used Arches paper 300g watercolor paper. It's more expensive than all the other brands I've tried here in Taiwan, including Saunders, Canson Montval and a popular Chinese brand called Baohong. Arches paper beats all of them. It's just easy to work with and allows room to correct mistakes.

A bit too funky

I was running late for the life drawing session. By the time I arrived at the studio, the session already started. I was quite taken back when seeing the model. She was wearing puffy white mittens and a dog-shaped shoulder bag. I think she was trying to be a cute kitten or something like that- a fairly common imitation seen among young girls in Taiwan and Japan.

I have to say the bag and the pose threw me off a bit. Although I didn't feel so while painting the model, I think the end result looks like a porn poster.

Again I was trying to apply what I learnt from watching Charles Reid's DVD. I put down some colours next to the model's head to show the white mitten. It's a trick I saw in the DVD but James doesn't like the arrangement. He finds the line too distracting. I personally quite like it, although I could have made the value lighter.  Guess this painting isn't gonna see too much day light from now on.

Life drawing is fun

 

Last time I attended a life drawing session at an art supply shop. I wouldn't say the other participants are all amateurs but I was sure there wasn't an art teacher in charge. Today's drawing session was held at a proper art school/studio, where an art teacher teaches, draws and paints, and many students study and draw and paint with him. To be honest, I was a bit nervous before I picked up the pencil. I walked in and saw all these people looking experienced but I didn't even know how to set up the easel! Once I started observing the model, I soon relaxed and forgot about the people around me. I did, however, try to remember what Charles Reid does in the DVD I watched. I couldn't get everything right just like Mr. Reid but I certainly had fun like what he described about life drawing.

Bonus? The host teacher, who happened to set up his easel behind me, gave me some nice feedback. He was surprised to hear that this was only my second life drawing session and I have never had formal training in drawing and painting. Ha, I hope the teacher wasn't just saying it because he would like me to keep going back to his studio :)