I went to the Open Figure Drawing session at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond today. A local artist, David Tanner, started a Thursday group from 1:00 – 3:30 pm.
We began with 10, 1 minute gestural poses then 3, 20 minute poses and one final 30 minute pose. The drawing above was my first 20 minute pose. I liked the curled position although it did not look very comfortable. I began with a gestural line in conte crayon. Once I had correct proportions of the figure, I smudged the conte crayon to achieve mid tones on the figure. I left the white of the paper for areas with strong highlights. Finally I added darker values by layering and smudging the conte crayon.
One of my students brought me a new sketchbook that she picked up from Booksamillion! Apparently they are going out of business and everything is 40% off. Yay! I decided that I would use this one for figure studies. This study is in sepia pastel. It reminds me of Madam X by John Singer Sargent. I think that it is the hand positioned on the table and the pointed nose.
The drawing below is the last one that I completed today, in my new sketchbook. I decided to work in graphite for this one.
This was a 30 minute pose so I was able to get a few more details in.
