figure drawing
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Short Pose Drawing
Short pose drawing is great for capturing the living essence of the figure. It’s the dynamic gesture that makes charcoal come to life. This particular gesture is more complete, and it took me 7 minutes to draw. I didn’t have the time to re-define lights and darks, but I got proportion and pose pretty well.
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Two-Minute Gesture Drawings
Here’s another set of two-minute gesture drawings. I drew these very loosely, but I like how lively they look. This is the case when accuracy is overrated, and these wiggly lines translate into movement and emotion. It took just a few minutes with a charcoal stick, but eventually will transform into a finished drawing. By
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Dynamic Gesture Poses
Here are two five-minute poses from life drawing sessions at TSOFA. I actually like both of these drawing. They’re simply dynamic gesture poses that capture the movement and intent. There’s emotion and anticipation despite some anatomical inaccuracies. This is proof that a pose doesn’t need to be long to capture it well. Often enough, basic
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Crosswalk Figures
These two look like crosswalk figures. Their path has intersected once, and then they’ll never see each other again. That is life! Anyway, each of these figures took 10 minutes. I used willow charcoal on newsprint. I feel like I should have paid more attention to the light in these, because the values are all
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Statue or Woman Drawing
At life drawing sessions, we get different models and some tend to keep their arms close to the body. This is a classical contrapposto pose, but I’m not quite happy about the arm. I prefer when the arms are away from the body for short poses, because they tend to hide important points on the
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Figure Drawing Side and Back View
Here is figure drawing of side and back view poses. These are quick gestures, the one on the left took 10 minutes, and the other one — 7. My goal was to capture the dynamic feel of the poses, and I think I did that well. If you look closely, you will notice that 7-miute
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Quick Figure Sketches
This set is two quick figure sketches. I actually marked the time for each figure. The first one is 5 minutes, the second one is 2. I like how the 5-minute figure developed, but the 2-minute of has interesting quality to it. As if I captured the most important parts, the rest can be filled
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Figure Sitting on Column
In this gesture drawing, a figure is sitting on a column. That column was actually a regular barstool, but I improvised. That’s probably why it looks so wonky. I usually work on those elements last, and there probably wasn’t enough time to finish it properly. However, I like it as a gesture. This drawing probably
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Same Pose – Two Views Drawing
I usually go to the short pose life drawing sessions, because I can practice drawing the figure quickly and in a loose fashion. Most of the times, each pose is different. Sometimes, the model does the same pose, but turns to change the viewing angle. And sometimes, I just switch easels to get the same
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Dramatic Figure Gesture
Here’s another sketch from my local life drawing sessions. I visit these almost every week, but I fell behind posting them. These two figures probably took me about 15 minutes each. The first figure gesture is very dramatic. It looks as if the figure has been performing on stage. The second one is in a
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Charcoal Figure Sketches
In this set of charcoal figure sketches, I drew two standing figures from front and back. The figure facing front is shown from a side with arms extended as if stretching. I’m sure in reality the model had a balance stick, but I decided to leave it out. Sometimes these poses look more dynamic without
