I have been trying to maintain regular practice of my figure drawing skills using online resources such as Quickposes but I know that to really get the most out of my figure studies, it is best to work from a live model – the additional skill of translating a three dimensional form onto a flat two dimensional support – rather than simply making a facsimile of an already flattened image onto another flat surface.
On earlier attempts, I’d found it hard to find any life drawing classes that were both nearby and run during the evenings.
After a bit more extensive searching and the odd phone call or two, I found a number of different options I’d previously been unaware of and one in particular ticked all the boxes.
For the past couple of weeks on Wednesday nights, I have been down at the Eastwood Community Centre to spend a couple of hours with the ‘Life Art’ group run by local illustrator Harry Slaghekke.
Initially I was quite daunted as everyone else seemed to be either a professional artist or professional illustrator of some form or another, but as it turned out everyone very open and friendly and offered lots of helpful tips and advice.
Harry in particular encouraged me to look and think more in terms of tone and shape – both positive and negative, rather than in terms of just outline alone.
It was something that initially took a little getting used to but the more I worked on it, the more it opened up a new perspective when determining how to translate the image to the page.
Every new technique and piece of knowledge builds on the last and for each time I take a leap of faith and step outside my comfort zone and into the unknown, there is the potential to increases these skills exponentially.
