Pencil and crayon drawings

I spent this afternoon drawing...

A quick sketch at Borough Market

The weather has finally turned in London so I made my way to Borough Market last week for an obligatory chilly wander around. I managed to make one sketch of the market entrance before the heavens opened. I must make it back to do more.

Drawing tips & tricks.

In the final weeks of the course our fab teacher Claudia encouraged us to draw with our left ('wrong') hand, draw without looking at the paper and draw without taking the pencil off the paper. The outcomes may look like a old right mess to you, but their wobbliness, mistakes and simplicity give them so much energy. I love em!

Working in this way inhibits you from drawing what you think you see and rather creates a direct connection between looking and the mark you make on the paper. I will keep my these tricks up my sleeve for when drawings get stagnant or appear too challenging. 

 2 min pose not taking the pencil off the paper

Quick poses, using my left (wrong)hand

Two longer poses done entirely with my left (wrong) hand

Applying my learnings in longer poses with the 'right' hand 

Princes School Drawing course

I was recently lucky enough to be given some time off work to do one of the amazing drawing courses at The Princes Drawing School.  I’m only two weeks in and I’m feeling incredibly inspired by the high standard of teaching and professional (very still) models. 'Traditional' life drawings they may be but it’s teaching me so much about looking, how to register what I’m seeing and how to translate and communicate that on the page... I want everyday to be a drawing day!

Here’s a snippet of the fruits of my, thoroughly enjoyable, labour.

A quick 2 minute pose to get the brain and pencil in gear.

Drawing with lines only.

Really trying to capture the sturdiness and strength of the
model here. 

Exploring how to build the form with abstract elements. So not looking at the leg, hand or shoulder in isolation.(It was reeeeally hard!)