Cryptocurrency

Another Monday life drawing class at the Royal Drawing School. The model tonight was the best one so far, all of her poses were interesting to draw. She was also big on crypto, when I arrived, she was telling another student all about how it's changing the world...

Anyway, tonight went very well, I'm happy with every drawing I made! I'm getting better at making my drawings fit by drawing boxes and immediately capturing the overall shape of the body with very loose strokes, measuring and correcting as I proceed. Before, I would start on one end, usually the head and try to finish each part of the drawing before moving on to the next. I've come to realise, however, that it works much better to put a complete sketch of the entire body on paper and gradually correct that because it much easier to measure and make changes when everything is there, even if still in rough state. That's because measuring always compares something to something else and it's impossible to do that when all I've drawn is a head.

On the drawing at the top of the post, my favourite of the evening and also the most difficult one, you can see how many corrections I make during 30 minutes. I've become ruthless about rubbing out even entire body parts where before I would hesitate, hoping to preserve something I felt proud of already. I think that's because now that I made a few drawings at the edge of my current level, I'm less attached to making another, similarly good one, and would rather push myself and reach for an even better drawing, even if it risks erasing something and drawing an inferior version on my second attempt. Come to think of it now, that hasn't really happened yet so maybe even that fear is less justified than I feel.

At this point, I'm interested in being able to capture the pose and draw a figure that is convincing and doesn't look like it would topple over. I'm also honing my seeing and measuring skills, learning to trust, even when it seems to defy belief.

Tonight was exhilarating! I don't know if I can wait for a week to do more life drawing. Maybe I can convince Emma to pose for me... 🤔