minor castings: Life Drawing

I've never really taken a life drawing course, I'm not sure how I've managed to get through this much of an art education without taking more than a couple individual life drawing classes here and there, it's a little confusing. So it's been a treat this term to be able to sit in on some of the 3rd and 4th years classes. There isn't a required class for the masters students here, but it is required for all the undergrads, and masters and resident artists were encouraged to attend. I went to all the ones that I could, but some were scheduled at times when I had other commitments (like context.)

I did spend most of the sessions I attended drawing the models hands and feet. Par for the course for me, I think. After being told that I shouldn't use a sketchbook or cartridge paper in the first session, I found brown packing paper that I love and used that, beginning with just pencil and then adding white ink or watercolour at the instructor's suggestion. I like being able to draw in lights and shadows and leave the mid-tones to the paper, it's a process that makes sense to me, more so than drawing on white paper, really. Though I also have some rice paper that is bright white and has a lovely texture that I used with markers in the last session. I hate marker. I think that's just because I don't know how to use it yet. It made me really uncomfortable. Though, by the end of the session I realized that even marker isn't as permanent as I was thinking of it, as the drawings developed they were able to move and be adjusted even without erasing or starting again, or blocking things out in pencil first, so maybe I will develop an appreciation for marker the more I use it. It's funny, I think, that I like to draw in pencil so much more than marker, which allows so much tentative mark making and changeable thought, when I engrave and have no problem that any mark I make with the wheel is permanent and must be worked with.