Photography and Figure Drawing

First of all, I loved my photography class, and during the course of the semester we kept blogs. We updated as we learned about other photographers and as we worked on assignments. I only uploaded a few of my photos for the assigned blogs, but I'm going to go back in the near future and post more of my work. Whether I keep updating new work depends on whether I keep up photography as a hobby, but we'll see where that goes. The blog is http://idmpmamcmahon.blogspot.com and it is also under my Links section.

On to figure drawing. It's kind of a touchy subject to many people, especially people who aren't art majors or artists in general, because, well, it's about drawing naked people. Contrary to popular belief, figure drawing really isn't awkward as you get used to the environment and the situation you've been thrown into because these credits happen to be required for your major. Of course the first sitting will be awkward, especially when the model is being politely - and untouchingly - situated into position by the professor. Drawing saves the moment. I'm not sure who you are or what you do, but most everybody has had the feeling of complete concentration and involvement, so much so that surroundings don't really matter anymore. When I - and many other artists - draw, what I'm drawing is hardly some naked stranger any more than it is a contour of a shoulder, or the shading of a knee. The subject matters, but not because of what it is, if that makes sense. It's just a different way of "seeing," I suppose.

Anyways, awkward has nothing to do with anything when it comes to figure drawing for me anymore, and I'm not about to go posting pictures of naked people I drew all over the internet. Granted, the model is unclothed, but I'm not going to share any gory details, just as I hardly drew from that perspective in the first place. All of these drawings happen to be of the male model, because he was very good at sitting still and did most of the longer periods of drawing, and because he has less to hide in a drawing, if you know what I mean.

We began with a long sitting, with the model next to a skeleton. The exercise was to understand the anatomy of the bones and muscles underneath so we draw with the correct proportions and see how joints are constructed if we get confused with what we see.

Graphite

Working with pencil was my favorite, because we "learned" how to crosshatch [even though many of us had already practiced this concept].

Graphite

We also worked with conte, which I have grown comfortable with from my other drawing classes, so I feel like I did fairly well with not having to concentrate so much on technique as much as the figure and proportions. The first one is a favorite of mine.

Conte