So I went to a live model session at SVA tonight. I’ll spare you the details of going back to my Alma Mater, but life drawing, or to be more precise, drawing the human figure has always been something that I’ve wrestled with, and often lost.
This is something that I’ve never been able to wrap my head around.
I can pull any number of animals, mammalian, reptilian, piscine, inscectile, whatever, real or imagined out of thin air at pretty much the drop of a hat, but if I have to come up with a convincing human being, I need six references and several hours. Even clothes give me problems, and these are all things that I see every day.
“After all this time, I still don’t understand why the human form is so alien to me.”
Anyhow, I came away feeling like I made some Good Drawings, as well as some inroads towards developing a visual shorthand for the human(oid) figure, though I suspect I will have a long, long, long, long way to go before I am really comfortable with it.
And before you say anything, I have thought of doing some sort of daily human sketch, and I may eventually end up doing something like that. However, I’m not really enamored about the idea, yet.
“I draw dragons because it brings me joy. I draw humans (and, by extension, humanoids) because they are often necessary to
express[self edit: convey] the ideas or concepts I am trying to express or illustrate…”“In other words, because I have to.”
-Me, tonight.
