I have done some life drawing before but only ever online. I am looking into local real life sessions to join but to get started, I thought I would make use of online again in the meantime.

Mixture of 1 - 10 min poses with Kali via Miss Muse Draw session

10 minute poses during 2BorNot2B online life drawing session

These were done within 24 hours of each other and there is definitely improvement in the second session. Maybe knocked some of the rust off. I have been working with lines to indicate curves of the body rather than just as flat forms.

I have also been trying to better understand gesture drawing via YouTube videos and whilst it's helping, I can't say I fully understand it yet.

I have joined Draw Brighton Patreon group and they have a mixture of both live and recorded live sessions so there is a catalogue for me to practice with which I will do over the next 2 months of this Part Four.

I didn't manage to find any recordings on Draw Brighton but did find some photo sets so used those for practice.

Above - Danna 14 x 1 min poses

Danna 2 x 5 minute poses

Danna 1 x 10 minute pose

Session on video replay with Draw Brighton. Frankie in bath - mix of 1 3 / 10 and 30 min poses

Draw Brighton offer as part of Patreon subscription the opportunity to watch replays - this one was with Jess. Find it harder when there are props so good experience for me.

Draw Brighton also do some tutorial posts and this one was about looking for the forms and the use of cross hatching to express them.

Another draw Brighton session online - 1 min, 3 min, 10 min and one 30 min poses. Definitely starting to feel more comfortable with these. For this session, I started with willow charcoal sticks to see if I can just get gesture and form down.

Nice to work with the male figure too

Another day, another life drawing session. This time one hour comprised of 5 x 1 min, 5 x 3 min and 1 x 30 min. Really struggled to make early quick studies work but longer study, other than making body a little too long, went ok. Hosted by Draw Brighton - model Vilidian

In-Person life drawing

Attended my first in-person life drawing class and from the practice I have done, I felt relatively confident.

That soon disappeared when I got started though :-)

My first attempts were with oil pastel as we were encouraged to use different mediums. However I felt it was quite sticky so hard to move across the paper quickly. Image on bottom right above is a collaborative exercise where we all draw for one minute then pass our board to the next person who does the same for total of three turns. Quite enjoyable exercise for sure

Switched to colour pencil and felt I had more control but they were very faint so hard to see what I had done. Top one was probably more representative.

Short break and time to try new materials again. I chose this beautiful textured brown paper and charcoal. Not worked much with charcoal and didn't realise I was rubbing off the figure on the right whilst sketching in figure on left. Really struggled with face of model on left so kept rubbing it out and coming back to it. Vaguely representative by the end.

Final pose (above right) and the models lay top and tail on the floor. This is quite a good example on how not to deal with foreshortening. Her head is massive and foot relatively small. Really gutted I don't get another chance to redo this one. Did stop as was struggling with the foot too as it was almost below me given the room was quite small. Think I got the shape and structure much better with version on the left.

Will definitely go to life drawing in person again - much more immersive experience and the view is completely different to that of a recorded video session.

@Bella_Franks_Artist

21/06 and another session with Draw Brighton live online. This time with Bella Franks as the model. Image above is the 30 min pose and pretty happy with it. Getting closer with the shorter 1 min and 3 min poses too.

Next up, a recording of a life drawing session from the evening before with Draw Brighton

Feel like I made a much better job overall with this session. Feels like I must be turning a corner. Even faces are looking closer to realistic.

Working in an A5 sketchbook again, another Wednesday session with Draw Brighton. Think the single leg standing (top right) is one of my favourites from this session.

Switched to A3 for this last session with Draw Brighton that will be included in Part 4 but I will continue with this weekly life drawing. I am definitely progressing so why not. This was a final 30 minute drawing with Ryn this week.