Myriam, mostly in contour
Posted: October 5, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized 14 CommentsMyriam has a wonderful body to draw. She must be a dancer, although I never got around to asking her. Wearing a mask definitely limits small talk in a life drawing session.
In our Monday sessions we start with three minute poses. Today I worked in pencil with a contour line.
With quick contours like this I try to follow the edge of her body with my eyes, and let my pencil follow along on the paper.
Five minute poses are ideal for me. It gives me a little more time to do contours and then measure both vertically and horizontally to line things up.
With a ten minute pose you can add a bit of shading. Or in my case, work on getting that foreshortened right leg right!
Or that foreshortened arm!
The final poses are longer, but we can’t move around the room if we want a better angle on the model. We are restricted to staying within our taped-off squares on the floor. This was a very difficult pose to draw from where I was sitting, but I figure that I am there to be challenged so I struggled all the way through.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
Shari these are amazing! such poses…. brought memories of my first figure drawing class oh so many years ago. You really did a beautiful job, especially the last one. I’m so impressed! You ar3e woman of many talents.
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Becky, thank you so much. It was a good session today. I didn’t go in with a mindset of coming out with a finished painting. I just wanted to work hard at drawing, which is what I did. Much more satisfying, and in some ways, and almost like meditation too.
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Just using a contour line in 3 minute poses is quite a challenge! Oh my! Nicely done.
Love the last sketch…reminds me of your Alice renderings. I think you did a fantastic job especially with that difficult pose.
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You’re right. That last pose was a bit like drawing Alice on her bed! Thanks for writing Bernadette!
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I understand what you were going through with the last pose. I had a very similar stituation – except my hindrance was too many students in the class.
I pretty much ended up with the same view of the model as you, but it was in a sculpture class.
The best I could do to make things interesting was to choose to sculpt some portions of my block of clay and leave the rest untouched on purpose – as though the figure was emerging from the medium.
All of your gesture drawings and longer drawings are very interesting – you’ve captured your model’s movement in all of them, so well. Really nice work.
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Wow Chris, I can’t imagine doing a pose like this in sculpture class. That seems even more daunting than with pencil, but that could also be because I’ve never tried sculpture!
Myriam was a great model, and I think I was in the drawing zone, so I am happy with some of these, which doesn’t happen often. I just hope they don’t shut down this activity with all the new Covid restrictions. Hope you are well.
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Enjoying seeing life class happenings.
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And I enjoy being there Janice. It truly is a gift to sit in that room.
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Beautiful life drawings. I spent years in a Philadelphia classic artt school where life drawing was central, I seldom saw work as fine as this. These are among the best.
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Ah, Judy, thank you for this. I was just happy to be there and drawing, and happy to share them too.
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Lovely sketches Shari. Now I’m really jealous! Great job with the final pose and totally agree that part of the challenge is to play the hand you’re dealt …. even when it’s a foreshortened leg!
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Oh, so much foreshortening in that session! I just hope they don’t shut this down. Every week with restrictions tightening I am expecting a call to say this is on hold until further notice. But so far we are good and I will keep on enjoying it.
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Hi Shari, you did an amazing job! I especially like the way you captured your subject in the last frame. The perspective and foreshortening is excellent. I always look foreward to viewing your sketchbook work. Thank you. Lyane
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Lyane, thank you so much. Myriam was a terrific model!
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