Life Drawing

During the course in 1st year we spent some time in the studio doing life drawing of nude models.

Once there was a requirement for animators to show life drawing skills in their portfolio for traditional animation jobs. But maybe that's not such a key requirement these days?

Anyhow, during the course of the life drawing classes I found a technique that worked pretty well for me as an average draftsman. So I'll share it with the three people who visit this blog.

My main obstacle was that I tried to hard to draw. So I chose a medium that I had no control over to make the first marks on the page. An ink wash worked well for me, as it goes on to the paper broad and fluid and under influences other than my mind and hand. Wash over wash gave the figure depth. Then I could add some defining lines (I like the feel of charcoal or conti crayon across the paper) to complete the study.