Clothed Figure Drawing

So my first assignment for my Clothed Figure Drawing class online at AAU's grad program is complete! Woo boy that was a long-winded sentence. It was pretty interesting to already learn some new techniques, such as sharpening the charcoal.



Now, this may be obvious to some of you, but Columbia's Fine Art department was hit or miss. I guess I got through not really being told about this phenomenon. For those who are still in the dark, all you do is take an X-acto knife (or any good knife for that matter) and shave it down to a point. It makes a mess, as you can see, so make sure you're more prepared than I was. I really love the patterns the charcoal makes as it's shaved off though. After cutting it down, you're supposed to smooth it with sand paper but since I am lacking that now, I just worked with it as is.



This was the first drawing I did after some warm-up exercises. I'm also holding the charcoal differently now--against my fingers and held with my thumb so that I can gain more movement and flexibility when drawing.



Also what was different this drawing around was that I started with the eyes and related everything to one another as I went, as opposed to roughing the entire form in all at once. I think it came out ok? lol It was definitely a different experience.

All in all, working with charcoal again was lots of fun--especially with new techniques. However... there was one thing I forgot about charcoal.



The photo doesn't do my face justice as to how ridiculous I looked. It was all along the side of my face and on my chin.. haha...

If anyone happens to still be reading too (I know, crazy right? Of course I'm just talking to myself and the internet), due to my renewed love and interest in charcoal and drawing the clothed human figure, if anyone wants a quick drawing of themselves then by all means, let me know!!!

Send me a few photos of yourself.... CLOTHED. And let's keep it somewhat decent.. at least try. I mean ultimately it's up to you but know there's a chance it'll be going up on this here blog so you may want to keep your privates to yourself. E-mail me at melisa.desrosiers@gmail.com, include a photo or two, tell me a little bit about yourself, and I'll get to drawing. Then I'll e-mail the drawing to you as a high-res file just in case you want to print it out or anything. If I decide to post it on my blog, I'll let you know first before doing so.

Alrighty! I shall await your responses.

::crickets chirp::