Leith School of Art week 1

I've not been posting much recently as I've been doing evening classes at Leith School of Art. We've just finished the first half of term 1 (6 weeks) so I'd thought since I've got a week off I must catch up with my blog!

http://www.leithschoolofart.co.uk/

I'm studying figure painting and drawing with a great teacher called Andrew Paterson, whose life-size oils are amazing!

http://www.andrewpatersonart.com/

In the first week we did a lot of quick sketching and loosening up exercises, culminating in a 45min final pose in charcoal. We had to draw looking directly at the model (and not at all at the paper! more difficult than you would think) this lasted ten minutes before we could even look at what kind of mess we made! Amongst the jumble of lines and marks, the loose basis of the drawing.

Next we had to attack what we had done with the rubber, which smudged, merged, softened and lightened our original image. Then for the last 30 mins we got to work proper! Tring to keep some of the sponaneous mark of the under drawing and refining it. As it was the first week I was definitely rusty and was knackered at the end!

Life study week 1

Charcoal on paper 23 x 33inches