Stacey Hughes: Life drawing

Life drawing techniques:

Here are a couple of pictures of my life drawing. I really enjoyed doing life drawing rather than using materials like wire as they are too fiddly. Firstly, I used pencil to get used to drawing a figure in front of me as I have never done this before also so I could get used to the technique. I used pencil first because I am used to this material and felt comfortable starting with it.

Here I have used acrylic paint I have used blues and yellows to show the dark and light shades as skin is not all one colour. I prefer working in colour rather than black and white.

After using paint I went on to use charcoal also I did a little bit of research about contour lines

Research: Contour lines

When drawing you need to pay attention to the curve of the form, but also the perspective of the form.

Charcoal- I really enjoyed using charcoal as it is light on the paper and it shows where the shadowing is on the model also it makes the light on the model stand out.

After including contour lines withinh my drawings I started to work on black paper using white chalk to show where the light was on the body. I found this harder than dark shades showing where the shadow is.

I went on to download an app onto my phone called sketch up and sat in front of the model I found this really easy to use and really enjoyed using it here is a couple of pictures.

After using this app I felt I should try out different techniques so I went on to using the material which I feel I can work best with which is charcoal and attached my charcoal to the end of a long stick. After doing this I went on the add detail with by hand.

I really enjoyed using a stick as I felt it worked best for me. I found I could get the body proportion size better and more accurate being stood further away from my page and that I could go back after to add detail.
Matisse-
He was willing to go to great lengths to achieve a good quality line! It could be that drawing with a pole was a self-imposed sort of handicap, to keep the drawings of this masterful draftsman fresh. Sometimes having too much skill can actually be a liability when it comes to making art, so a technique like this can provide a balance.