Week five and six from my Royal Drawing School Drawing:Ink and Watercolour evening course.
(Week one here, weeks two and three here, and week four here and see my Instagram story highlights here.)
October 19, 2022
Week 5 – Stephanie Forrest
This class focused on drawing a model and incorporating the variety of different mark making gestures from the Laban Grid. I had just got Covid so left a little early from the class to go to bed early!
Laban Grid
We started with mapping out different brushstrokes correlating to Laban movements. I love this so much. It’s making me think more about how I’m painting, as well as making me think less overall! Everyone’s grid is slightly different, unique to each persons movements/way of holding the brush. The idea is to refer back to the grid to inspire different types of mark making in our work.
Blind Contour Drawings
Exercise one and two – see images above – keeping an eye on the the overall form of the body, start at one point and move the brush very slowly, looking more at the model rather than the page.
Let the brush run out of ink before reloading (this gives a sense of the brush ‘breathing’), ignore shadow and light. This drawing becomes a record of the visual experience, it’s more about looking than the drawing itself.
Very Quick Drawing (like 5 seconds each!)
Very quick movements, look for twenty seconds then draw from memory, use as few lines as possible.
Curved Lines
Longer drawings using curved lines, floating and wringing brush movements. We looked at Jenny Saville and Chris Ofili for inspiration. Our teacher has a background in history of art so the accompanying slideshow for each class has been very educational and inspiring!
Straight Lines
Draw using only straight lines. For reference we looked at some Euan Uglow sketches.
Reference
Draw from reference from the masters- Frank Auerbach, Reclining model, back view; and Matisse.
October 26, 2022
Week 6 – Max Naylor
This class was about combining well observed detailed studies with more abstract landscape drawing. We had a look at the epic drawings of the chinese master Zhang Daqian during this class to get us inspired.
First, Detailed studies
We started with drawing two trees from reference, looking at different parts of them. I drew a scots pine from a photo I had from Glenveigh National Park and a mountain ash from another phot I had from the summer. Then we had to draw one other thing to go with the trees – I drew a cormorant flying.
Then, Experiment
Abstract, imagined landscape on A2, incorporating some of the elements from the first three drawings. I love getting pushed to draw from my imagination as I rarely do it. This was one of my favourite drawing from the whole course.
