Form, Flow and Force: Ah, Push It!

This part of the brief was a little different to the first half, as we were asked to draw just one pose rather than a sequence of moving characters. Our model was to push or pull against an object and hold that stance for 5-10 minutes, allowing the rest of us to draw. This, to me, sounded like the best part of the brief. It has been a long while since I have had an actual life drawing session, and this task gave us more time to draw our model, yet didn't last too long so we could get carried away with details. It still encouraged us to work quickly, which I liked the sound of.

James in Red Sharpie

The session started of well. I chose to draw James in a thin red sharpie because I was feeling adventurous. It is very rare that I work straight onto the paper with pen because I usually make a mess of it, so I've surprised myself with this piece. I "committed to the line" and it's resulted in a very clean line drawing, which I am very proud of. Granted, James now looks like he is going to rip the chair in half, but he does look realistic so I can overlook the fact that I've drawn him as baby Hulk.
I made the parts of the body that are closer to viewer bolder in an attempt to make the model stand out of the page more, and where this has worked, it hasn't given the chair any weight to it. There doesn't seem to be much of a struggle to lift the chair. I think this is down to the media I have chosen to work with and how I have used it. All the lines are the same thickness and flow smoothly. To make it seem like there is more of a strain I could try using thicker lines, or make the colour even darker/bolder. I shall have to bear this in mind for my next drawing.

Emma in Dry Brush Acrylic

I tried something completely different for my next drawing. I wanted to try working with paints again considering my watercolour attempts for the last quarter of the brief didn't go so well and I wanted to try to improve drawing directly onto the page with them. Instead of adding water to my acrylic I left the brush dry in an attempt to make the model seem as though they were applying force to their actions, which I felt I was unsuccessful with on my first attempt. I think I did much better at doing so with this piece. I still made the lines that were closer to me darker to make the model look 3D, but this time the lines were bolder and "sketchy" due to the dry brush. To me this gives the model weight and applies a force, especially when you compare it to my first drawing.
Dry brush is something I've never done before, so I'm proud of myself for giving it ago and I'm happy that it turned out well.

Matt in Dry Brush Acrylic

I decided to continue working with dry brush acrylics because the way in which Matt was posing for us meant he was applying a lot of pressure to his wrist as he was resting on it. Considering my last attempt went well at capturing force I thought it would be best to use it again. I could have experimented to try and find something else that worked well, but the pose was incredibly awkward and difficult that I just stuck to what I "knew".
I think this went rather well. I don't think I have been able to capture just how much force he is exceeding in this piece, but I believe that I have been able to draw Matt accurately (excluding his head) which is quite the achievement considering the pose.

James in Chalk

For the last drawing I resorted back to using chalk on black paper, as I enjoyed using it and wanted to see if it was a good media for capturing force. In the last pose we had James sitting awkwardly in a chair, leaning back and pulling against the backrest. Again, I think I have done well at drawing my model and capturing the proportions of him well, but there doesn't seem to be any strain on his arm of back. It feels to relaxed. It might have been nice to have the drawing on grey paper so I could work charcoal in too to see if this made much difference to capturing the force James is applying. Even if not I think this would look to be an interesting piece and combination of media, so it is something I shall bear in mind for the final part of the brief.


Overall, I think this session has been the most successful so far. I know I have been hit and miss with making the model look like they are applying pressure/force, but I think I have been very successful at drawing them in proportion and keeping them looking realistic on the page. I have thoroughly enjoyed this life drawing session and I'm looking forward to experimenting a bit further and seeing what I can produce with a little bit more time in the last quarter of the brief.