Life Class – 1st November 2016

1/11/16

Life Class – 17.00 – 19.00

My first life class in Lanzarote! The wonders of the Facebook network has brought me together with a new teacher, class mates and venue!

Firstly, the venue! How lucky are we to be able to use a professional sculptor’s studio here in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote? Not only that he, Jason deCaires Taylor, has the commission for creating an underwater sculpture museum of people from Lanzarote. Many have already been submerged and many more are being cast and constructed at the studio.

underwatermuseumlanzarote.com/en/info-museo-atlantico/

We are surrounded by various body parts, moulds and, full sculptures outside ready to be installed in the sea. After submersion, the sea life claims the work as its home and the figures take on a whole new dimension forming a man-made reef of colour and texture – breathtaking.

Back to the class: This is the first of a series of three sessions, with this one looking at line. We could work in any media so I began with pencil, moving on to black conte stick and white conte pencil. This week we had John as our model, who was very tall and slim. Our tutor was keen to reference the “dog women” paintings by Paula Rego, which also merged with the Halloween theme of werewolves and scary poses. So our model had his work cut out!

Two minute “scary” poses
Line in Pencil

 

 

As is usual, we began with a few 2 minute poses to warm up. Here I concentrated on gesture and stance rather than detail.

 

 

 

 

 

Five minute poses, one being timid and scared, the other being a “dog” pose after Paula Rego.
Line in pencil.

After a quick break, we returned for a couple of longer drawings of around 10 and 40 minutes. The light was fading quickly and we had minimal lighting particularly on the final pose. The model had some subtle highlights but I could barely see my drawing – it was interesting to see where I felt I should enhance the darkness because of this.

Ten minute pose in a position common to sleeping dogs.
Line in pencil.

Sleeper by Paula Rego

 

 

 

Referring back to Paula Rego, our model was posed in a position often adopted by dogs when sleeping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A similar pose painted by Paula Rego as the inspiration.

 

 

 

 

Final forty minute pose in very subdued light with some subtle highlights visible.
Black and white conte.