Life Drawing

The class was scheduled to start at 1pm. I arrived in plenty of time to get myself  and my odd assortment of folders, pads, pens and pencils organised, ready for off. The whole escapade was a last minute whirl, as I'd only found details of it a couple of days ago. With Havant being limited in available artist's supplies, I'd cobbled together anything already to hand that I could use -a piece of hardboard, a plain, A4 pad of dubious quality and a couple of clutch pencils with the softest leads I could find.

Don't be fooled by the photograph. There was no chance of making a detailed drawing of this pose, or any other. The object of the whole exercise, apparently, was to 'capture movement'. The young model is a dancer, and was asked to perform a sequence of steps, A, B, C, which she then repeated   in sequence, over and over for the next twenty minute or so, before the 'organiser' ( I use the term loosely) of the class, called a halt. We were expected to produce lightening sketches of this beautiful, but blurred, activity, like demented Leonardos.

To begin the class, the model held a pose for exactly three minutes, which was supposed to allow us to 'get our eyes in' , as the 'organiser' put it. The only thing mine got in was whirl of frustration... There was this delightful girl, who made every artistic bone in my body want to capture every one of hers on paper ! Fat chance. I was told 'all life classes are like this now'. Thank God that the life classes I attended were 'Then' not 'Now', or I'd never have been able to hone my skill as much as I did, which is still not as much as I would like. Can't see much new honing going on unless the timing is better structured, and the movement less phrenetic during the next class in a fortnight's time. Thank goodness I took my camera...

P.S. I've been valiantly trying to scan a couple of liittle sketches, but scanner is obstreperous, and I have threatened it with a visit from my son, who will beat it into submission at the weekend! LOL :) 

Thanks to AC's suggestion, here are photos of some of my lightning sketches, bearing in mind they were either  done as the model was moving, or at most, in 3 minute windows of stllness.