You don’t have delve very deep into the world of art until you come across the human figure. Bodies are fascinating subjects. We all have them. They consume a lot of our lives in one manner or another. Therefor we are all innately interested in bodies and bodies in art is part of a rich artistic tradition.
I’ve wanted to try figure drawing for a while but like many things with drawing, fear stopped me. Fear of tools. Fear of protocol. Do I use a drawing horse or a easel? What even is a drawing horse? What if my drawings are really bad? What if I get bored after 5 minutes? What if I don’t have the right materials?
Each of those questions a reason to never pay the $15 for a three hour session around town.
But yesterday, that ended. Because yesterday in drawing class, we had a live model and it was glorious. Glorious!
I do most of my drawings from photos and the amount of information you have in real life is drastically different than staring at a photo. Real life is so much richer. You have an essence of the person in front of you but the curve of the body and the angles of the form seem so much more immediate with a live model.
The human body is made up of complicated shapes and forms. But they also offer incredible opportunities for expression. I cannot wait until our next live model class, and in the meantime, there’s a life drawing class on Friday in Portland, and I’m planning on showing up ready to have a great time making some terrible drawings.