Sketchbook

Here are a few sketches from my sketchbook, some copied from master drawings and others from photos.

Back to it

I haven’t done enough life drawing this Summer. But as the school year begins, off I go to practice what I teach. It was a pleasure to be at the TSA today because my favourite model, Murray, was working.

Here are a few drawings (10-20min) from this morning, plus the long pose from this afternoon.

Papa et maman

Here are two very small drawings of my parents, made of charcoal and red chalk.

La petite Justine

I took photos of my friend’s baby a few years ago, hoping to find the time to sketch her. I finally did!

Justine
red chalk and charcoal on toned paper
4.5×4.5

Helen at the TSA

The model today was Helen. The top drawing is from the long pose this afternoon where I only stayed for half the session. It’s a good likeness of her and I’m happy with the drawing but I wish I had drawn it larger — the face is only about 10cm and I completed it too fast. At that size, I was afraid that if I kept on fussing with it, I would ruin it.

The drawings below it are 5-15 min poses from the morning session.

TSA Sunday

The TSA had a new model today. Andrea is a dancer and did a great job for us. In spite of that, I only had an ok day — a few ok gestures and short poses, but nothing great. The long pose this afternoon went a little better. I got a good likeness of her and am satisfied with my attempts at staying loose. I’ve been reading Sherrie McGraw’s book on drawing and admire her style so I went for the red chalk. I generally avoid this medium because I find that everything often looks sickly sweet with it. Plus every drawing just looks better with red chalk — it seems like cheating somehow! In any case, I hope that’s not why I thought I did a good job today…

Long pose:

A 15 min pose from the morning:

New life

I spent some time working on Sunday’s TSA drawing. I evened out the values and turned the form.

Today’s drawing

The product of today’s TSA open life drawing session. I’m a bit rusty — it’s been a while — but not a bad start to my Summer.