More figure drawing

Last night's pose was a bit easier because I didn't have to worry about attaining a facial likeness, and her arms and legs were out of view. I could just concentrate on the back muscles and hair mass. Not a bad session.

BPMI Figure Drawing

We had a three-hour pose on Monday night . One of the Figure Drawing classes had to make up a studio due to a model being sick, so they overlapped it with the BPMI coop. So I had some extra time to refine the proportions and facial likeness adding a few more details.

BPMI Figure Drawing

Another two-hour Photoshop sketch of Valerie, an excellent model. She held this pose like a statue with only a 10-minute break. I like the result; I wish I had more time to detail the legs & feet more. I'll have to work faster next time. Like I say, a great exercise in working fast.

BPMI Figure Drawing

I brought my tablet to the figure drawing coop at the design center last night, and was pleased with the results. I had forgotten what a good exercise live figure drawing is because with a two-hour limit I'm forced to work fast. I started painting in color but I don't think it was working out very well so I desaturated everything and went to grayscale. That enabled me to block the values in faster. I also cropped the composition so I could pay closer attention to the head and torso. With 15 minutes left I wanted to see what some color would do, so I created a layer with an overlay blending mode and quickly laid down some skin and hair tones.

I have been sketching, but I haven't had time to scan my moleskine and post to the blog. Next week I'll try to catch up.

Daily Sketch: upset on the phone

Another idea for the pinup series of females I have planned. She's on the phone and somewhat unpleased. I'm anxious to get working on these, but I move into my new house this week and am going to be busy moving, painting and cleaning carpets. Hopefully I'll have a little time to sketch.

Daily Sketch: Arm Proportions

I was messing around, constructing a new pose for a female in my Moleskine. I was having trouble remembering the arm proportions so I looked up some photographic images of a human skeleton.

Bringing some images into Photoshop and using the Measure tool I figured out that if you consider the length from the shoulder joint to the elbow as one generic unit, then the distance from the elbow to the wrist joint is 0.8 units. In turn, the distance from the wrist to the tip of the longest finger (if the fingers are extended) is roughly 0.6 units. That's a handy ratio to remember. 1 - 0.8 - 0.6. I should do the same for the legs.

Daily sketch: dressed up and bored

A sketch out of my Moleskine this evening. I realize her head is way too big, but I wasn't quite going for absolute realism. I think I have an idea for a new series. I've recently been inspired by the work of Jack Vettriano and am in need of art for my new house. I plan on making a series of vector art pieces depicting beautiful women in a manner similar to this one. Perhaps with smaller heads.