Figure drawing class...

So I took an Intermediate Figure Drawing class in the Spring term. It was an okay class. We had a variety of models of different shapes and sizes and ages, unlike at TCC where we only had ONE model for the entire term. I really got tired of drawing the same woman over and over. I don't know how Freida Kahlo could even bare to paint herself so many times. I get bored using the same repetitive subject, so at UNT the variety was nice. But I also heard through the grapevine that the pay at UNT was much better, starting at $17 an hour (again, that's what I heard). I mean, it's not enough money for ME to stand naked in front of folks measuring every inch of the body, but there was no shortage of others who didn't mind. In fact, some of the male models are guys who have been at UNT for years.

Most of our days in the classroom were filled with repetitive exercises. Quick "gesture" sketches of 10-seconds, 20-seconds, etc, over and over and over as a means to warm up. Then 5 minute exercises of differing types. For example, draw the figure in one pose, then the model would move slightly, and we would draw the new pose over the top of the old one. Then finally, towards the end of class we would draw a "long" pose of 30 minutes. To me, 30 minutes isn't long enough!

Anyway, here's a few drawings:

Just a little 20-minute study


The next drawing was an exercise in which we drew the model from life on the right side of the paper, and then the model left the room and we had to invent a pose to draw from memory of the model's body on the left side. I must have had trucker mud flaps in my subconscience when I drew that left side:


I kinda liked the "compartmentalized" value effect that I tried on the next one to create my shadows. I'd never tried the effect before. I usually blend, blend, blend a fine smooth range of values from light to dark, without any obvious lines or borders of value variation, so this was a good exercise for me to break the values up more distinctly:


All shapes and sizes and ages, like this elderly (and very friendly might I add) gentleman. He always brought a book to read while modeling. And yet he still fell asleep sometimes, haha. The cloaked figure is a cement statue in the room used as a prop.


I think students modeled just so they could get some sleep between exams.