Figure Drawing

"Don't be afraid of taking measurements. Every one who did anything worth looking at took measurements." -Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst

This horizontal pose was super tricky for me--I've gotten kind of used to setting proportions on the vertical, sight size (I hope it's not becoming a crutch, but I'm just gonna go ahead and assume it's not since I think, in general, my eye for proportions is getting a lot better because of the sight size stuff I've been doing). It did take me a little longer to get the proportions looking relatively okay, because I was doing a lot of comparative measuring and angle checking (and the head is still a bit small--I didn't have time to correct it, and didn't dare do it without the model in front of me ;) . It's good to shake it up and see what I can do without the scaffolding of sight size, anyway. But for a while there, I was thinking this drawing would end up looking pretty scary, ha. As it is, I don't mind it too much. I almost pulled it together near the end there, and mostly the pose and model are just really pretty.

One thing this sight size method is teaching me is to be more patient and deliberate. I used to be a lot more hasty when I drew, and now I'm trying out this whole slow and steady thing. Patience is a virtue in many arenas (I've done a lot of working with kids (and parents ;) and I think the patience I learned there is transferable, and definitely pays off here). So, slow and steady wins the race. Good drawing can't be rushed. Though there's nothing wrong with doing really quick little sketches on the fly, in my opinion--they're fun and good for the wits, whether or not they're worth looking at after the fact.