Osher Figure Drawing with Model Amelia

This week's focus of study was dealing with the challenge of foreshortening.  We warmed up with Amelia taking contrapposto standing poses for us-- the classic standing twist. By drawing with a continuous line, we could explore interior and exterior contours, and with our drawing implement always in contact with the paper, we could spend more time looking at Amelia and less at our paper.

We moved on to 4-minute wrapped-line drawings.  Rather than following the outer contours of Amelia's form, we imagined we were mapping the path of an ant crawling back and forth across Amelia, and so created a contour drawing.  This technique helps to understand the landscape of a foreshortened limb.

Amelia's final gesture of the series was quite foreshortened, giving us a great opportunity to test what we had been practicing.

We moved on to a 15-minute study of foreshortening -- the challenge of drawing a limb coming directly towards us.

We finished the class with a long pose of about 50 minutes (with breaks of course), and incorporated foreshortening into the pose as well as interesting background elements. 

Many thanks to model Amelia for a fantastic session with amazing contrapposto poses!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Emily

We had a wonderful session studying foreshortening with model Emily last Friday.  We began with 3-minute gestures following Emily's structure.

Once we were warmed up, we approached foreshortening in the gestures through wrapped line drawings.  

I described wrapped line drawings to my students as tracing the path of an ant traveling back and forth over the surface of the model's body.  

Another term for the ant's path is cross contours.  By looking at the contours criss-crossing Emily's body, noticing where they piled up on top of each other, we could sense the foreshortening.

Adding an outer contour line and a shadow or two added enough depth and dimension to bring the figure to life.

We made a longer study of foreshortening with a 15-minute pose, and added a fabric drape to give us some practice drawing fabric, too.

We finished the class with a long pose of about an hour, with breaks for Emily.  Her pose incorporated foreshortening, fabric and a clear view of her face for those who were drawn to portraiture.

Many thanks to Emily for her beautiful poses and inspiration!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Sophia

Friday's Osher Figure Drawing class brought us model Sophia, whose remarkable creativity and flexibility inspired us all.  We began with 3-minute gesture poses in which we focused on the skeletal underpinnings first, then added in contours and shading. 

We moved on to 4-minute poses, focused on drawing wrapped lines of cross-contours to help us understand how to express Sophia's foreshortened forms.

Sophia put a Herculean effort into the back bend pose below, with much of her body weight held by her right arm.  We shortened the pose length to 2 minutes, yet everyone managed to get a full drawing.  Energized by Sophia's effort, we artists drew faster, intent on capturing as much of Sophia's pose as we could.

We incorporated a study of drawing feet into our foreshortening theme, taking 10 minutes to draw Sophia's feet in a close-up study.

We finished the class with a long pose that included foreshortening and excellent lighting to show Sophia's contours.

Many thanks to model Sophia for inspiring us with her joyful spirit and expressive poses!

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Hector

We had a wonderfully creative session Friday with model Hector, who transported us to a magical woodland through his poses and the props he brought -- a forest backdrop, a fantastic headdress, woodland ferns, and mossy green fabric.

We began with wrapped line gestures, imagining that we were creating topographical maps for ants as we followed the cross-contours of Hector's body.

It's amazing to me how-- by drawing only interior lines -- we could express the volume of Hector's body, and the curve of his spine.

We began adding a few shadows, which immediately created depth and form.

We moved on to study foreshortening, sketching Hector's outstretched arm in profile.  Hector then moved his arm towards the camera to increase the foreshortening. At each step, we sketched for 2 minutes. Just for fun, he dangled a silk flower from his fingers.  

Feeling warmed up and ready to take on some foreshortening, we set up a long pose to draw, and incorporated all the amazing props Hector had brought to evoke the Green Man in his enchanted woodland home.

 Many thanks to model Hector for bringing the inspiration for an amazing session!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model David

In Friday's class, I focused on new ways to approach gesture drawing to help those new to the concept.  We looked at the structure of the body through mass gestures -- starting within the form and drawing with the side of a charcoal stick, pastel, or other soft media rather than just capture the bubble of surface contours.  

We moved on to wrapped-line gestures, sometimes called tornado drawings, which focus on capturing the cross-contours of the body.

We then combined techniques, and started with mass gestures as a foundation that we added a few contour lines and some shading to (4 minute poses).  I used colored chalk for my mass gesture and built up from there with a charcoal stick.

We finished our gesture marathon with a 5-minute study of foreshortening, drawing just the limb that was coming towards us, and incorporating cross-contours to help us see the foreshortening.

By the time we got to the final 25-minute drawing, we were loosened up and ready to tackle David's foreshortened pose.

Many thanks to David for his hard work and beautiful poses!

Figure Drawing Update: David

Our scheduled model last Friday came down with a fever and was unable to work for our Osher class, so David stepped in with creative poses and strength to save the day.  We wish our model a speedy recovery and will plan to have him back when he is well.

We did several exercises to prepare us for dealing with foreshortening, including wrapped line drawings,  in which we followed the cross contours of David's body with our charcoals to help us to understand the way that body parts stack up visually as they come forward in space or recede.

We also turned our charcoals on their sides to create mass drawings.  This technique encourages us to draw the whole body, including the inner structure and shape of the body mass.

We finished the class session with a long pose.

David and I recently sorted through the deep stack of drawings in our living room Zoom art studio.  This is a sampling of what we have created during the last few weeks!