Quick Sketch from Tuesday

      Just one of the things you learn when doing quick sketches is to edit the figure down to the simplest form. Above is a figure drawn during Tuesday nights informal workshop. Above, the model's pose is a challenging study with crossing arms, legs and wicked foreshortening. It is a successful study with minimal lines and shadows. Taking Rembrandt's drawings as inspiration, I have distilled down to the essentials needed to show the form.

Compare the sketch above to the male pose below which was done on my first figure drawing class months ago.  Both are five minute poses. Note the difference in the treatment of shadow. Less in the top sketch is actually much more effective. Also the bottom sketch has a consistently heavy line, with little variety. The pose is defined but not directed. 

Look again at the drawing above. The figures head directs your eye to follow the arm down to the leg. Then the dark line of the calf leads the eye back up, around the bent arm, up again to the face.  So why is this important? Because....
the principles that make a good drawing also make a good painting. Leading the eye where you want is an essential element when composing a successful painting. To engage the casual observer and pull them into the painting, is the effect every painter wants to achieve. Orchestrating that in your painting with varied lines, shapes and colors begins with a conceptual understanding of how to draw. 







Male Figure Sketch