Life Drawing

I did not attend many life drawing sessions this year. My attendance was appalling across the course, but life drawing in particular I avoided because it made me so uncomfortable to stand around in a circle for 2 hours drawing a naked person. I realise that as an adult at an art university, I should be able to attend these sessions without a problem. Unfortunately I am far too anxious for this sort of thing and it just isn't for me. I have heard about a life drawing society at the university that has clothed models, so I am going to take advantage of that when it starts back up. I really do enjoy studying from life, so I don't want to let my personal issues to get in the way of that. 

Anyway, here are some of the studies that I got to do. The quality of the pictures are not very good as I took them in my house which doesn't have very good lighting. I tried to edit them in photoshop but I couldn't do so without distorting them so I have left them as is. 

From the above, I picked out my favourite two to look at closer.  I really like the way I have done her hair here, although the proportions are off.

The proportions in this one are a bit better but still not quite right.

I really love the study below. It is my opinion that this lovely model often looks quite grumpy and I think that I captured that well here.

Again, I love the way I drew the hair here, but my proportions are still off.

The proportions in the next one below are much better and her posture looks quite natural. The drapery is confusing, however.

I really enjoyed the session where we got to draw faces. I struggled at first, not feeling confident enough to make any bold marks. After some tuition from Tessa, I felt more at ease and loosened up a bit. The first face I drew turned out pretty well, though the nose is too sharp and the nostrils aren't defined. The last face is my favourite study from all the sessions I went to. It looks like a real person. I learnt to make light marks and build up on them for a more realistic effect. I also paid more close attention to her bone structure and how all the facial features work with each other.

Like I said in the beginning, I really want to seek out this life drawing society at the university so that I can practice more comfortably and get to the level I should be at already like if I had attended all the sessions. It will help me greatly because I mostly draw humans and it will also help with 3D modelling. I know that it is important to see muscle definition, so I will also ask some of my willing friends to pose for me over the summer as I would be much more comfortable with this.