Master Class in Anatomy

This Summer, I took Werner Zimmerman‘s Master Class in Anatomy. I had heard so many good things about Seneca’s life drawing teacher, that I was thrilled to see the Master Class being offered and signed up right away. I wasn’t disappointed! Werner is a generous, passionate and dedicated teacher who knows the body inside and out.

Here I am with my ecorche figure in progress. We used small plastic skeleton models that are very unstable and they eventually broke under the weight of the clay. It was fun putting it together before it broke, and the tactile experience of placing muscles on a skeleton was very valuable.

Werner organized two day trips for us, the first being the most exciting: we went to the Human Anatomy lab at Guelph to handle and draw from cadavers. We could lift some of the superficial layers of muscles to examine those underneath, or push them around to see how they fit into one another. It’s hard to appreciate how compact and tight muscle bundles are and how tough tendons are when just looking at books. We also went to Guelph’s bone room, which holds a large collection of animal skeletons.

Here are a few of the drawings completed during the workshop. I have more, but I didn’t have the patience to photograph them because it would require re-aligning layers of tracing paper over original newsprint drawings of the figure.

Various Drawings

Here are some recent drawings, mostly from yesterday’s TSA Open Life Drawing. The top one is from the 3h afternoon pose. Genevieve was the model.

The two last ones are of Murray who modeled for a group of us in my living room on Saturday. I organised the session for the purpose of completing a few anatomy studies and invited friends with an interest in anatomy to join me. I hope to organise a second anatomy drawing session in September, so let me know if you want to join in.

TSA Sunday – Denise

A few drawings from the TSA today, 5-15min.

TSA Sunday – Kate

Here is the three hour pose from this afternoon.

TSA Sunday – Maria

Drawings from today, 5 to 15 minutes, except for the top drawing which is from the afternoon three hour pose.

TSA Sunday – Lidia

TSA Sunday – Michaela

I tried out Mylar again today. It’s not easy to control charcoal on plastic! The pan pastel did glide beautifully on it, and I love the tactile feel of smudging the medium on the page with my fingers. But I also learned not to overdo it — oily charcoaled fingerprints stain Mylar.

Michaela was the model today, for both the long and short poses.

Thursday night at the TSA

Yesterday, I decided to go to the TSA for their evening drawing session. Here are some of my drawings of Geneviève.

Ben and Geneviève

My drawings from the TSA today, starting with the long pose from the afternoon, followed by the short poses of Ben from the morning (5-15min).

First Sunday

Another school year is over. I now get to focus on my own work. What better way to begin but by attending life drawing at the TSA? Here are some drawings from today. The long pose is of Ezster, and the short ones are of Ginamaria.