For this Part I attended a life drawing class and have a collection of drawing which you can see in my sketchbook. In the class I was always tempted to focus on portraiture and had to force myself to look at the full figure, and found some guidance on ideal body proportions and measurements which I found useful as a basic reference for life drawing
I tried to measure the life drawing models using a stick but for some reason got better results if I just drew from observation, taking the ideal measurements as a starting point and trying to use the surroundings as a reference.
The class tutor explained the use of a grid, which I have previously used with photographs, but this time using a grid sheet fixed to the side of the easel, which reminded me of the device in Durer's ‘A Draughtsman drawing a Portrait’ that I saw a few years ago at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This time the grid was a transparent grid through which I could see the model, and the idea was to draw the grid onto the paper and then do the drawing of the model within the gridlines. Though I could see that the method would work well I didn’t draw the grid onto the paper, I did however use the grid as a reference for my drawing and show below two exercises I did in this way - exercises in foreshortening.
My first drawing was a bit out of proportion, the head is too big, and the legs are not quite right either, it was however a bit better than I had usually tried on foreshortening.
My second attempt is more accurate I think
I learned from these exercises to look for points of references around the model, and of course it was much easier having the grid lines as a reference - I could see the proportions more clearly than previously. I didn’t need to measure, and though you can argue that using a grid is a form of measurement, I was at least relying on my eyes rather than a ruler or a stick. Some people seem to be fine with a ruler or a stick, but for me there is too much scope for error given the variable positions of arms and fingers - a big difference when translated onto paper.
Reference:
. Victoria and Albert Museum, Drawing Techniques, 1stMay 2019 {http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/drawing-techniques/}
. Andrew Loomis/, (2011), Figure Drawing for all it’s worth, 12, Titan Books