SKETCHBOOK MONDAY

On Sunday my girlfriend Alyson and I joined a small group of artists, drawing enthusiasts and novices for an intensive figure drawing workshop at the MFA. We arrived at 10:00 armed with charcoal and paper and went till 2:00. It was intense.

We started with 5 second interval poses. The model moved and kept moving and the seconds, we quickly realized, went by much too quickly. We learned that a good drawing starts with a single line that captures the longest gesture of a figure. 

I had taken figure drawing classes before, but I learned so much during this intensive workshop. Below are my drawings in order from the start of class to the last drawing I did. You can see the progress as you scroll down the page. At first they don't look like much. As Patrick said when I arrived home and showed him the first page in my sketchbook, "I could do that."

He's right. I believe anyone can draw. Like anything you have to be taut and most importantly you have to practice. And boy is it clear just how much practice I need.

Learning the proportions of the human body.

I assure you the model has all her limbs...not that you would know that from the drawings below.

Hm, not bad. Less is sometimes better.

Crazy alien head woman below.

Starting to understand proportion a bit better here.

And these are the final drawings above. Not bad. What do you think? Have you taken a figure drawing class lately. Would you ever take one if you haven't?