Namushka - Charcoal on Roma paper
4 week pose
Drawn in sight size at London Atelier of Representational Art

I thought it would be quite interesting to document the various stages of this drawing and post them up on the blog to serve as a record and help me improve and build on my process for the next drawing. It is very interesting to see how a drawing starts and follow its journey to completion. It always surprises me on looking back at the initial marks and measurements how wildly inaccurate I can be. With every life study I undertake at LARA, I try to remind myself to be more patient at the start. It is all too tempting to get those first marks down and get lost in the initial energy and intensity as you respond to the contours and planes of the form. Time would undoubtedly be better spent just standing and looking, observing the gesture and finding the rhythms before putting charcoal to paper.

The sight size method of drawing that is taught at LARA facilitates the drawing process and provided your initial top and bottom marks ( for head and feet) are accurate will serve as a safety net to check and compare proportional decisions for the rest of the drawing. I am starting to liberate myself from an over reliance on measuring devices, whether it be sight size or comparative and try to trust my instincts and judgements. I have a tendency to over analyse and over complicate many of my drawing decisions which I know detracts from the fluidity and quality of line. I can feel and see the difference in a line that has come from responding to an observation than one that has resulted from scrutiny or an overly academic approach.

I find that with many of the life studies I have made at LARA I know from the beginning whether I am going to enjoy the study or not. I don't think it is related to mood on the first day or energy levels but simply a matter of whether I feel a response to the model and the pose. I really loved the set up for Anushka, the contra-posto, the strength in the locked standing leg and the relaxed dropped shoulder with the slight curvature in the arm. The shadow shape flowed beautifully over the intertwining forms which seem to cross each other like ribbons. I tried to keep this idea in mind when finding the gesture and again when applying background to the overall impression of the figure.

I think it is apparent from my first block in drawing that the proportions were inaccurate. I was keen to get going and capture gestural lines and get a sense of the weight transfer of the standing leg that I failed to note and observe basic elements such as shoulder line placement and the pelvic line to mark the centre of the body. You can see the progression in the drawing and gain a sense of me finding a better sense of structure and searching for a better way to push the gesture. I wasn't so afraid to move things continually during this study, the charcoal makes corrections and line moving much easier than graphite which is far less forgiving. I didn't however want to sacrifice the structure and tried to seek out those key anatomical anchors to help make the form more believable. Although some of the change are subtle the little shifts, or pushes and pulls all contribute to the end result. I have used a red line in the example below to show how I wanted to create that extension and tension in the standing leg to give it that sense of weight and poise which really made the gesture so beautiful in the way she posed. 

 Despite having 4 weeks on this drawing there is never enough time to complete all those little details and tonal transitions. I was pretty happy with the end result and will learn from the mistakes and take forward the lessons I learnt to the next drawing.