Life drawing day 2

Here's my work from yesterday! Will post today's lot up tomorrow. I found this model the most difficult to draw, she was really tiny and my drawings don't represent her body very well...somehow, I think its hard to draw a small chest. Like when you're drawing a female figure the breasts and hips are defining curves of the torso and when they're really small I get lost easily and don't know where to go with the drawing. Anyway I tried some more acrylic and realised I'd like to learn it properly at another class some time, my painting is really amateur and I've forgotten the right approach. Also do you ever think back to early paintings and remember how good you thought they were? Its like I downgraded somehow, but probably those early paintings were no good either, haha. Had the most fun doing ink studies, even though they're not the most accurate or particularly 'good'.

Well today I was going to post more life drawing, but I was scatterbrained and left my phone charger in Leicester so I can't upload the pictures until tomorrow. Today was pretty tiring, my arm is really aching from drawing! Anyway, I went to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake tonight at Bradford Alhambra. I'd been wanting to see it for years but always missed my chance at Saddler's Wells so I was made up when they annouced another tour, and the show surpassed my expectations! My new favourite New Adventures show maybe? I love Bourne's adaptations of classical stories and the camped up sense of humour they all have. Tonight I laughed a lot, though Jonathan Ollivier's performance as the Swan in the last act moved me to tears, it was so beautiful.

This was one of my favourite acts in the show, sort of like a satirical ballet within a ballet [though this is the only piece of actual 'ballet' in the show, otherwise there's not a point in sight] that pokes fun at the campy old-school while the Prince's girlfriend misbehaves in the background. There's also some fabulously hilarious butterfly and 'trollete' costumes -

Life drawing day 1

First day, went over measured drawing and measured the figure in heads. Sometimes this method really works for me and sometimes it stifles the 'balance' of the drawing...I need to trust in the measurements more rather than what I think 'should' be right. Construction lines for standing poses don't hurt, though its harder to do for lying down poses with foreshortening. Today I used charcoal+chalk, acrylic and ink and a stick. It actually gives loads of interesting marks and cool ink splatters. Tomorrow we're drawing a girl, its nice to have some variety in the models...and my teacher reminds me of Chris in the way that she doesn't interfere with your drawing and lets everyone get on. Most of these are 10-20 minutes, spent about an hour on the acrylic, going to try and zoom in on one area and make a nice fleshy tone tomorrow with a large brush. Also I heard there's a life drawing class every thursday at a place very near me, really cheap too, I want to go there over summer!

fresh start

I realise I've been neglecting my blog a lot recently, and it reflects on my low enthusiasm this term...I've been concentrating on the group project and seem to be in the labs more than usual, but I haven't got as much to show for it as I'd like. I've lost the idea of time management and I've been wasting days thinking I've been doing more work than I have, so its time to stop being dilusional and apathetic. I've been really distracted with pointless things this year and I will try my best to improve myself before the start of summer. In a way I'm thankful to everyone for making me realise this before it was too late.
Attending a life drawing class at Leeds Art College today and the next two days, so I will post some of the work I do.