Longer Pose Figure Drawings

Here is a collection of life drawings from the final term at Sarum Studio before the summer break. These are poses that are sustained for longer periods than anything we do at sketch club, although still relatively quick compared to the academic practices of many other schools. Some took approximately 6 hours to complete, others in the region of 18 hours. That sounds like a lot of time, but highly finished work could easily take at least twice as long to bring to resolution. I think the shorter time frame has some advantages; the work stays a little fresher and individual perhaps – which I like – although sometimes I think you can sacrifice really exploring nuances in the pose, overall finish, and tonal values by being so hurried. That said, I am my own worst enemy in how I prioritise my time. I particularly enjoy working on the portrait aspect of my figure drawings and often spend a long time trying to get that just right.

I doubt whether the things I don’t particularly like about some of these drawings would have been improved given more time anyway. I feel that some of the poses didn’t quite have a pleasing flow in life, and looked a bit awkward and uncomfortable. The girl standing with the staff, for example, found that the pressure on her toe joints was too painful to hold in her original stance, so moved her feet to place one on top of her other in order to distribute her weight differently. To be honest, I think it just looks odd, and it also meant that she started to bend both legs in a way that didn’t look natural. That is something for the artist to learn from however, in helping the model to find a pose which experience tells us won’t find these difficult pressure points.