Her name sounded like Myung Soo? She was a very lovely model, and I had a good time drawing her.
This was one was a 10-minute pose. I made her look too thin and young, but I did get the positioning roughly accurate.
This was a 20-minute pose, and my favorite sketch of the evening.
My classmate Gerard said (jokingly) that not including the chair her left knee was propped on was “an art school no-no.” Sigh. With only 20 minutes, I want to draw a human being, not a chair!
But I did take this advice for the final pose of the evening, which was about 30 minutes:
At this point I was quite tired and didn’t feel like doing serious sketching. So I drew the simplest possible sketch of her pose, added the blockiest possible shading, and drew in the chair and the cushion. I am better at drawing people than objects. But alas, I made her left upper arm too short! And then there was still time in the pose, so I started adding little decorations… actually I like how they came out.
I really really liked the model’s gesture poses (2 minutes each), but those are such quick drawings I never bother to upload them.
Erik thinks I should focus more on shading and less on contour. But… I like contour!! 😦 Of course he is right, and my former drawing instructor Lia would agree firmly. But then, Lia is a painter too.
This class is full of painters and even their drawings are quite painterly. (Non-artists: people who draw as their primary artistic method tend to focus more on line and contour, while people who paint pay more attention to shading and volume. I’m probably using the wrong words for these attributes, but there is a definite difference in approach.) One of my classmates, the talented and very nice muralist John Wehrle, was doing these beautiful quick sketches and I just looked at them and thought, “My sketches are pretty decent, but he’s doing the same thing with less effort and more simplicity.” It’s the benefit of decades’ worth of experience, I suppose.
I know my sketches are getting much better, and rapidly, and so is my attitude — in that I’m no longer so desperately envious of very skilled artists, or so miserably depressed when I look at their work. But I still always have to quash that “his work is better than mine” reflex whenever I look at someone else’s drawings, paintings, crafts, writing, or whatever. Each person’s method and vision are so individual, there’s really no use comparing artists unless they are aiming for the exact same goals in the exact same medium/technique. I know this, but even so, sometimes I walk around and look at other people’s sketches and I just think, “I should be doing it that way,” “she’s so much better than I am,” “I’ll never be that good.” It’s not… a problem, thinking this way, anymore, because these thoughts no longer define the way I view my own art and other people’s. But the reflex is still there.
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
Hi, Satsuma,
I’m glad you stopped by Hugo and Millie from Dorit’s link, I’ve enjoyed seeing your thought processes on art and wading into shows since I’ve been going through it.
I like the sketches, wow, for the time limit, you did really well getting the proportions and placements. I draw people at lunch or in shops. It’s really hit or miss. Some days it all goes well, and the others, who knows. Your outlines are dark and sure, without showing a lot of structure lines– that’s not easy.
“Art school no-no” about a stupid chair? Whatever, focus is important, you could make it a rock later with some scribbles, and it’s just a sketch, or, even better with her having it hang in the air, who knows why! I worry about these realists and their monthly Metamucil bills.
Cheers,
Hugo
Hi Hugo!
Thank you so much for commenting — reading your encouraging comment first thing in the morning really perked up my glum mood from the night before!
I’m getting much better at drawing people. I haven’t tried sketching out in the world since I began this class — should return to that, see how it goes.
Gerard was being flippant with the “art school no-no” remark (he pointed out that he hadn’t drawn the chair either), but the idea has to come from somewhere… this is why I never went to art school, nor have I any interest in going now. I’d rather explore my art on my own terms; I’m already too easily swayed by others! Your Metamucil line made me laugh so hard.
Going to comment now on your most recent Hugo & Millie post!
you’re right about the approach to drawing being different for “drawing” focused people and “painting” focused people… drawings tend to be blocked in first, scribbles out the wazoo. probably because i’m used to working in layers. i think my favorite one of the set is your third one. especially around the chair and feet/legs. very nicely done. i have seen you get better and better! 🙂 one way you can stick with contour but start adding value/shading is by varying the weight of your contour lines as you draw (hard/light, thick/thin)… i don’t know, just a thought!
i don’t know about the art school no-no either. maybe because the leg ends up “floating”. and we traditionally like having things “anchored”. but it doesn’t necessarily mean there ever has to be a literal OBJECT there that the knee rests on. i think a simple change in value would be sufficient. that’s what i think, at least…
Thank you Alison! 🙂 You’re right — I should vary my line weight. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and I just keep forgetting… so I really appreciate the reminder. 🙂