Life Drawing


Life drawing has become an integral part of my growing practice.  It is an opportunity to experiment, to put myself under pressure with timed sessions and to try out ideas or even materials.
For years I struggled to understand how life drawing could help me.  In the art world there is a lot of snobbery around drawing from life and drawing from photographs.  This clouded my judgement and for years, I would trudge along to weekly life drawing classes not really knowing why but just a sense that this is what artists do.  On reflection the sessions were poor, no consideration for lighting or even thought put into poses, but its what artists do, isn't it?
Now I do most of my life drawing from photos organised by Raw Umber Studios via a subscription, they are lit correctly and offer realistic but challenging poses and I do my drawing from 'actual life' at cricket matches, sketching the crowd or players. Life drawing or painting is a purely academic process where the artist learns to draw the human figure stripped of trappings and clothes, this helps the artist develop their figure painting.  I am careful to select poses that are not sexualised but are challenging, such as the model twisted round or a complicated entwining of arms and legs, then I can use them to practise and help me become a better sports artist.  They are lovely little studies of the human form that can be enjoyed as such.  I have put some of the ones I really like up for sale here.