Friday Life Drawing

[@Drawing-Life]

Thanks for watching! Let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts on life drawing, and particularly drawing the long poses. Do you always draw the full figure, or do you sometimes use some of the poses to focus on an area of study? 😊

[@noelboreland1765]

I manly do portrait haven't done any life classes in a few years so you inspire me

[@Drawing-Life]

@@noelboreland1765 If you can get to life drawing again I think you'll love it and find it really energies your portrait practice. 👍

[@Cka-bt5dq]

I have just started life drawing classes (3 so far) and absolutely love it. This week was my first male model - he kept making eye contact which made it feel a bit creepy. Is this normal because the female models fixed on one spot. Other than that I find it really satisfying ... and challenging as a self taught 'artist'. Watching this video has given me the idea of concentrating on the parts of the body that I find more difficult. Love the videos

[@Drawing-Life]

@@Cka-bt5dq So glad to hear you are enjoying life drawing! It's an amazing practice to have and to work with, i'm really glad to hear that you love it. It's not normal for the model to make eye contact !! 😆..... yeah, that's not appropriate, the model needs to be professional, as does the artist. Life drawing is a working environment. It might be not intended as what you were picking up (and making you feel creeped out) but in any case it's incredibly off-putting, and breaks your concentration if the model tries making eye contact while you are drawing. My advice would be at the next pose, once he's taken the pose, move to another spot that is not in his eye line for that pose, hopefully message is received. If it's really bothering, mention it to whoever is running the session.

[@Cka-bt5dq]

@@Drawing-Life Thanks for the reply. I've given him the benefit of the doubt because he apparently is relatively new to modelling but had already decided to move out of 'eye contact' lol... slowly going through all your videos and find them very informative and helpful.

[@baumzger]

I’m lucky to draw at life drawing session a couple times a week. It has definitely changed how I approach drawing

[@Mariko-Tin]

I am a self-taught artist, I love drawing male portraits. But now I have a chance to draw a female from life. And it’s quite challenging and frustrating for me, because I have little knowledge of male anatomy and I had no idea how to make fast figure drawings at my first sessions. I wanted to draw full figure, because that’s what I’m supposed to do. But eventually, I arrived to a conclusion, that it’s not necessary to draw the full body, especially when the pose is difficult for my level. It’s more useful to draw, what I can really draw, because it makes me safe and less nervous. And I’m eager to study anatomy outside life drawing sessions. I was happy to watch this video and to realize that I’m on a right path to improve my skills. I would like to thank you for your other videos. For me, who doesn’t have somebody who could guide me through, your videos are pure gold containing a lot of useful information. What I like in your videos the most is that you encourage intuitive drawing. There are no bounds, while you draw. It is of great importance for me, since I’m a self-taught artist, I’m not going to study in any art school or something, this is just my hobby. I enjoy drawing and want to make beautiful drawings. Your gesture drawings are amazing!

[@Drawing-Life]

This is so wonderful to hear, thank you for this comment! I know so many people can relate to this. And I'm so happy to hear that your instincts are on point, you are exactly right to try to work within what feels right for you at the moment. An artistic development is really about deepening, not so much about adding on. Learning anatomy outside of life drawing will have a huge improvement on your understanding of what you are drawing, but allowing yourself to be instinctive will have the most profound affect on your ability to express what it is you understand. This opportunity to draw without bounds, as you say, is something that you should embrace within the life drawing setting. It's a great practice. You will in time become much more comfortable with gesture drawing, once you feel confident in your own abilities. Your instinctive way of drawing is what will make beautiful drawings. Your knowledge of structure and form will support that! It's very challenging to go to life drawing without any guidance or tuition, so well done for that. I'm so glad if this channel can offer some small support! thank you 😊❤

[@paul329869]

Hi, Love Life Drawing, I’m Paul, and how are you doing this morning? There tonight, I’m from Witch City, MA, USA. Right now, at this moment, I haven’t done much figure drawing classes since my last drawing class at Lynn. So, I practice gesture drawing of figures of friends and family while I time myself on my iPad Pro or iPhone with a Timer+ app. Keeping up so far, cause right now, I’m trying to get my membership going with the local art gallery at Lynn, MA. Thanks, and good day.

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Paul! I'm Siobhan :) thanks for watching this video. Great to hear that you draw figures from family and friends - that's actually one of the best ways to improve drawing. Look at Hockney's portraits and figures - all done from life, all of his family and friends. I love that you do that, keep it going and keep me posted! Thanks again for watching, appreciate your support 😊

[@noelboreland1765]

Hi I have followed your video on utube you are in Ireland at the moment where are you based I live in donegal

[@Drawing-Life]

Traveling around, mostly Dublin / Meath

[@doloreslott7135]

Can you please tell me what charcoal paper you mainly use ? Ty

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Dolores, I mainly use Newsprint paper - it's great for charcoal drawing, hope this helps!

[@baharehzamani9399]

I guess “zooming in” in life drawings would be creepy 😂 thanks for sharing your process 🙏

[@Drawing-Life]

Lol!! 😆 so true!! haha. Thanks so much for watching, really appreciate your support here❤

[@Mariko-Tin]

I guess a big magnifying glass could be usefull in this case. Though creepy too 😂

[@Drawing-Life]

@@Mariko-Tin haha! that would be funny! ... but not completely crazy - I know early artists used a type of lens to look through in order to make very realistic paintings .... but yes, in life drawing it would be super weird! 🤣

[@jeconquy]

Love the portrait and also the others you show at the beginning. I really appreciate the way your hand glides over the paper changing the charcoal (compressed I guess?) angle from edge to point and the gestures you make when erasing. By the way, those easels are fabulous. Never saw that kind of easels. I myself have just enrolled in a live model course but I don't have your fluidity in drawing. I should try bigger formats and compressed charcoal instead of trying to learn on willow charcoal. Anyway, it's always a pleasure seeing you draw. Thanks for the tips. Cheers

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you so much Jerome, I really appreciate your feedback. I've been offline for a while, and keen to get back into posting more videos, this is giving me encouragement to get back to it! Hope your drawing is going well

[@jeconquy]

@@Drawing-Life well I think I finally understood Nikolaide's blind scribble studies ( I think) thanks to your videos. I went back to read chapter one of the book this afternoon, and I paid more attention to the words and expressions he used such as free flow, feel the action and movement, and avoid following edges (I tended to do the latter), which I now perceive in the way you draw. Thanks

[@michelled2686]

Hi Siobhan, I love to watch your videos just before I go to my life drawing class....they really get me in the right head space and are very inspiring. Your portrait came out really great. I find noses and lips the most difficult! Thank you, and I hope you post some new videos soon :-)

[@aaradhyatewari5161]

am Aaradhya Tewari :) and I have a keen interest in animation. That's why I was thinking to buy your 3 level animation courses i.e. 1) Learn to Animate: Animation Principles 2) 2D Character Animation: Walk Cycles 3) Character Animation: Dialogue So, I find out that these 3 courses were available on 'Udemy' and 'Skill Share'. Firstly, I thought that they were same, but I find out that on 'Udemy' there were more downloadable resources than 'Skill Share'. For example - In your first course i.e. 'Learn to Animate: Animation Principles' , there are 11 downloadable resources but in 'Skill Share' there were only 3 resources. And same goes with the 2nd and 3rd courses. So, I was wondering that it would be better for me to buy your courses from Udemy or Skill share ? As there are more downloadable resources in Udemy. And are they both actually same ?

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Aradhya, thanks for this message. It doesn't make a big difference which platform you choose, the courses are the exact same. The resources on Udemy are simply files that i used in the demos, so they won't affect your own project work. Hope this answers our question.

[@aaradhyatewari5161]

@@Drawing-Life Thank you very much ! It really means a lot that such a professional is answering my question ! 😀😀

[@Drawing-Life]

@@aaradhyatewari5161 haha, no problem!! I'm always here for any of my students. Let me know which one you choose, I'll look out for you on the course

[@laurenwhite1747]

I go to regular life drawing sessions that I help run. I am having trouble getting models to be dynamic in their poses. How can I suggest more interesting, manageable poses whilst being respectful of the model and their comfort level.

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Lauren, great question - very common! I also have the same issue. One thing I've done in the past is show examples of poses - either drawings, or model poses from online resources. I use the New Masters Academy channel for drawing from photo reference and I think that most of those poses are really good, so it might be helpful to pull it up on your phone and suggest some of the poses from those model reels. That can be easily done and is more of a suggestion to your model of poses he/she might not have thought about. It's also really helpful for them to see visual examples of other models. Another suggestion is to ask the model to think about sports and try to hold a pose from an action like tennis (or boxing!) or dance (Nicolaides suggests this); and recently I've thought about suggesting an emotion - ask the model to take an "Angry" pose, or an "ecstatic" pose.... etc - that prompt could even be super helpful for students too, if they can try to draw the anger, or the ecstatic aspect ?? So, those are some suggestions. Let me know if any of these work out or help at all?

[@laurenwhite1747]

@@Drawing-Life Thanks for those tips. I tried the emotion suggestion and it got a good response. I managed to get some nice dynamic drawings as a result. The long pose was extremely dull. That's going to be my next challenge. Might look at some photos and pick out a few comfy but interesting options for next week. Different model too.

[@Drawing-Life]

@@laurenwhite1747 ah great! Glad to hear the prompts worked out .... yes the long poses can be really dull, that is so common. Personally I really dislike it if the model falls asleep during the long poses because the energy of the room slumps completely. I try to get them to take a pose that is't lying down flat to try to avoid that. It can be tricky, because their comfort is a priority as well. Maybe a compromise is to shorten the long pose and do 2 half hour poses instead?

[@bjornlarsson1478]

Hi Siobhan! I was doing a lot of gesture drawing with a model about ten years ago. Now I try to get ”back on track” and have just found your channel. Your way to present it is so joyful, dynamic and... full of life! Thank you ❤ I’m going back to your first films so I don’t miss any of them. Again - thanks for all your inspiration and help. Best, Björn

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Björn, wow thank you so much, I love this comment, so great to hear from you and that you appreciate this approach and the videos - really means a lot! I've been away for a few weeks, but planning to upload more videos from next week on, stay tuned. Glad you find this helpful :)

[@laurenwhite1747]

I've been using your tips during my weekly life drawing sessions and at home using photographs. I was so tight and exact before but now I'm completely freed up and less tense. The results are much improved drawings that I'm beginning to feel happy about. Life long study but I'm enjoying drawing more now.

[@Drawing-Life]

Wow Lauren, that's so awesome to hear!! Thank you so much for this comment, honestly this makes my day, so glad to know that this content resonates and that you've been able to see improvement. To me the best result is to feel happy about your process. Good drawings naturally flow from that point! Keep me posted! :)

[@Smiley_4000]

Thank you Siobhan. This is an eye opener for me. I've just started back at life drawing class and I'm really struggling with the longer poses.

[@Drawing-Life]

That's so good to hear!! thanks for your comment - it's wonderful that you are able to get to life drawing, and all i can say is the challenges are real, and everyone struggles with the long poses! Just keep going! 😅👍

[@kimberlyjeffers1623]

was a very nice video. I don't get to attend life drawing like I used to in the past. I wish I had these tips to apply back then! would have saved me a lot of stress, headache and unnecessary feelings of blah blah blah. I will definitely keep them in mind for the next drawing session though. whenever that will be.

[@Drawing-Life]

Thanks for this feedback Kimberly! So glad you enjoyed the video. Definitely keep it in mind, you never know when the opportunity to go to Life Drawing presents itself :)

[@reenadatta3802]

Just attended a live figure drawing session today. Shall keep your tips in mind when I go for my next session. Thanks. Love your videos.

[@Drawing-Life]

That's so awesome, this is very timely then! really glad to hear that! Thanks for watching :)

[@Msannamitta]

getting anyone to come and sit for me is a challenge so i have really make it up as i go along. I have a lot of moving bodies around me as not much clothing is being worn and fantastic natural light source right now. Do you have any advice on self critiques? Always look forward to your videos 👍

[@Drawing-Life]

Well, i'm glad to hear that you are drawing bodies around you! In my mind, drawing anything from life is key! .... Advice on self critiques... hmmm, my feeling is basically, don't try to critique your own work!! That is, unless you are experienced and confident in your own process, and then you'll be a good judge of your own work. But as a beginner, or a developing artist I think it's absolutely critical to get outside feedback, and hear how other people respond to your work. For one thing, a beginner just isn't qualified to judge drawing, and will usually judge in terms of the wrong criteria (ie, does it look like a photo etc). When I say get other people to give you feedback, I mean ideally other artists, drawing people etc. That's the beauty of going to life drawing, you have a group of folks who know exactly what's entailed in drawing the model so they can give you invaluable feedback on your work. If you really don't have that support, and you have to critique your own work, then my advice is to try to not judge your drawing like a photo. Certainly don't judge your drawings right away. Keep them and look back over them after a week or so. Instead, what you can do is try to judge your process - did you feel engaged during the drawing session, did you lose track of time and focus completely on the subject matter.... if you did then you know that you've hit on something great and you can work towards getting that feeling in subsequent drawing sessions. I hope this helps! Let me know. 😊❤

[@sylvain_st_pierre_2019]

Makes total sens. Thanks for the video. So so glad you are back. You are my main support in drawing.

[@Drawing-Life]

Ah thank you Sylvain!! So glad to hear this; thanks for watching!!

[@kasandramanering7400]

This is wonderful, Siobhan. I recently did a couple of life drawing sessions. I loved it. It's been ages since I did one. I think I mostly made a mess but I like the energy of the drawings and I'll probably use them for future paintings.

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Kasandra! ah lovely to hear from you, thank you so much for watching. Are you going to keep up the life drawing? That's an awesome idea to use your drawings for paintings! I think that's something you would really love and could be a whole new way of working for your. Let me know! ❤

[@kasandramanering7400]

@@Drawing-Life I'm going to try to keep it up. Opportunities for life drawing don't come up here often but I'n keen so I have my fingers crossed.

[@w00olf]

Watching your video after a long time I learned a lot from your videos

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Mohsin! Welcome back! you were missed. thank you for watching 😊

[@w00olf]

@@Drawing-Life It is an honor for me