Fabric and form: Emphasising form with cloth

I did this exercise in one of the sessions in my life drawing class – two drawings of a model wearing a colourful long skirt and a cardigan.

For the first she was seated on a fabric-topped stool with one foot resting on the stretcher bar of the stool, therefore hidden under her skirt, and I did a 15-minute drawing on A3 paper using Indian Ink applied with a wooden (Kebab) stick employing line and hatching technique. I don’t think I quite managed to get the suggestion of her bent right leg under the skirt accurately - it looks as if she has only one foot.

For the second one I found her pose more difficult. I again used Indian Ink applied with the stick, but this time on corrugated cardboard, adding tone with gouache, but I think I made the lower part of her body a little too narrow as it looks out of proportion with her upper part, and also the chair looks a bit too small.

I enjoyed the exercise overall however, and I’m fairly happy with the result of the two drawings. I think they are three-dimensional, and fairly good representations of the model. Also I loved the experiment of drawing with the wooden stick and working on recycled corrugated cardboard with gouache, so will do this more often