Ruxandra's: drawing

Due to my fine art background I started life drawing classes with a very classical, preformed approach. My years spent studying sculpture trained my eyes to focus on how light hits different shapes, but the way I've learnt to capture the dynamics of body movements was in a somewhat static way, failing to capture the energy of the characters. The problem with it was that I would envision my models performing just one action. At the beginning of the semester my life drawing skills were rusty and very obviously rigid, as seen in the pictures below:

These were my first human sketches of the semester, at the airport when I had to travel to England and the others made in class. All the people portrayed above have stiff positions and it is difficult to imagine those poses easily transitioning into something dynamic. The pencil I used creates a fairly even line and the curves of these lines develop in a steady way. There are no exaggerated curves or straight edges therefore there is no tension in shapes. The figures seem static and completely lifeless.

When we eventually started drawing life models I was putting too much focus on figuring out the anatomy of our subject and the sculptural aspect of it instead of looking at the overall shape as one object in motion, example below:

Given how short the posing time was, the results were not particularly vibrant nor anatomically very correct. It is indeed difficult to break old drawing habits.

Throughout the rest of the session and the ones that followed I struggled with fitting just one full body sketch on each side of the paper. Because of how close we sit to our drawing benches I have felt an inability to work well with the size of the paper. When drawing, it is always challenging to fit in the characters without stepping back to see how the edges frame them, therefore I always end up with figures that are too big to finish on the same side. Considering that there usually isn't enough time to take a step back, I decided to solve the problem by adjusting the size of the figures in relation to the size of the paper, preferring to draw them too small rather that too big. For this reason, I fit more than just one sketch on the same page, to help me see the entire image which makes it easier for quick poses. It is also very helpful to make a quick tiny version of what I am about to work on, as seen below during the session with chairs and in most of my work when time allows it:

In order to produce a fast, successful drawing I need to work up from a small version of it. It is generally how I started approaching my homework too (above) so I would become familiar with the overall shape and proportions before committing to it.

Now at the end of the semester, I am still learning how to focus on the intention of a pose before anything else.

The books I always refer back to when I'm in need of practice or guidance are:

"Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters" by Robert Beverly Hale

"Figure Drawing Without a Model" by Ron Tiner

"The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

"The Human Figure in Motion" by Eadweard Muybridge

"Gesture Drawing for Animation" by Walt Stanchfield