Update on drawing techniques

We have been doing life drawing for a few weeks now and I believe I have already improved on my drawing skills. This is because I was able to be in a quiet environment with a piece of paper and a tool and just to draw on the paper what I saw in front of me.

I haven't used charcoal much, but I am beginning to really like it and in fact I almost prefer it better than pencil because you can get much more detail down in a faster time and sometimes it looks better because of the way you can smudge it with your fingers for shading and effects.

I have been practicing with my thumb and finger and preparing myself before I start drawing by marking certain points on my paper by mapping them out using my hands and even a pencil in front of my eye. At first I didn't think this technique would work but it really does help. This has really helped me because I always get proportion wrong and it is so much better if you have points mapped out on the page before you start,  like a line where the feet and and the head is and how far the arms spread out for example.

Class Portraits

In class, we did a little drawing exercise before we started our life drawing, this was to prepare us and to get us ready for observing and drawing something in front of us. We had a few minutes and we were to go round the class and draw each others faces using pencil or chalk etc. I used pencil, and because I am quite a slow drawer, I didn't manage to finish any of the drawings, so some of them are half finished. This has sparked me onto trying to become faster at drawing and just get down what i can on the paper instead of trying to be too neat and perfecting every detail. I can take this knowledge on board for when we start the life drawing and it this has helped me to better myself and drawing faster.

Introduction

Over the coming weeks, I will be creating a range of life drawings in class, where I will then upload to this blog, building up a portfolio of drawings before I will then go on to design my own character.