Sketching at MCAD -- Part One

The oft-parodied nude modeling session is actually a great way to develop one's artistic chops. Drawing in public (coffee shops, etc.) is fun, but people move around so quickly that it's difficult to focus on anything but basic shapes. With a modeling session you can dig into the subtleties of light and shape, etc.

Britt and Danno invited me to a session at MCAD yesterday, and here are the results:

My drawing materials are similar to what I brought to last month's Opera Sketch Night:

- brown pitt brush pen [B] (the thick brown lines)
- brown pitt fine pen [F] (the thin brown lines)
- Pentel pocket brown pen (the black lines, thick and thin)
- Copic markers (the gray and tan tones)

We started out with some quick gestures:







Then we went to some longer 10 and 15 minutes poses:













For the longest (20+ minute) poses I twisted Danno's arm and stole his large drawing pad. I'll post those later this week after I get the big sketchpad back from Danno.

The session lasted four hours. In the final few minutes we switched gears and did some quick gestures to cool down. This first one looks like how I feel most of the time:







I fully realize I didn't really draw these correctly. You're supposed to lightly sketch in the full form as basic shapes in order to find the figure and then slowly build up the tones and detail. Unfortunately I'm too impatient for that, plus I really like the messed-up look of an oddly proportioned model, so there you go.

Not sure when I'll be heading back to MCAD in the near future, but I'll be hitting up the Bell Museum Sketch Day on Sunday. Looking forward to drawing some prairie landscapes!