Exercise: stance
I wasn’t really sure what is meant by the word stance. It seems to have been something that I had tried to get right in my figure drawing so far, without knowing that this was it. I enjoyed this exercise. I began to feel a bit limited by using only myself as a model and this triggered some creativity in finding new poses. But the double task of posing and drawing is physically exhausting. I tend to cramp the left arm and hand when I hold the sketchbook while drawing with the right. It also forces my head to be turned towards the mirror. Not ideal. But the big advantage of self portraits is that I don’t have to make appointments, schedule sessions etc. And I also like the privacy of my exercises. Maybe when I feel a bit more safe with figure drawing then I might draw other people without feeling too embarraced by their presence and judging my drawings.
Exercise: Energy
This was a great exercise. I really had fun making these quick drawings and began to invent strange poses in front of the mirror, sometimes very imbalanced. It was like “draw yourself while standing on only one foot”. I chose 4 poses which permitted to stand still without falling while drawing. This time I really managed to make quick sketches and didn’t hassle with details because I couldn’t hold the position for longer than 3 or 4 minutes.
I made a second attempt to draw a bit of the back view, slightly bent towards the mirror. It is difficult to adjust eye and hand coordination for drawing in this strange position. But I think I captured the twist in the central axis quite well.
