Figure Sketching

Last night, I attended a figure sketching at River Arts in Dobbs Ferry.  As usual, it goes on like this: six different poses of 1 minute duration, five different poses of 5 minute duration, two different poses in 10 minutes and 20 minutes duration with a short break in between.

I felt rusty going into the one minute poses and the Micron 01 Sepia ink pen didn't feel right.  After choosing the chubby crayon size water soluble graphite pencil, the playful lines became easier to handle going into the five minute poses.  Then I concentrated on the facial features which required a switch to a regular 2B pencil.  You can see the dots where I paused to guide me to a respectable drawing representation of what I see.  

For the last two 10 minute poses, I tried to capture the whole figure and one of them required foreshortening.  The final two 20 minute poses required a more careful observation for refined lines and shadows.  

Sepia pen doesn't cut it so I switched to pencil for 1 minute poses.

Getting the feel of it.

Getting comfortable in direct observation.

Foreshortening challenge.

Capturing the facial details and proportion using dots to guide me.

Entire figure with more dots.

Foreshortening.  Model lying on his back against the round platform stage.

Full size sketch with more defined shapes.

Last pose for the night.  Multi colored pencil.