Observational Drawing - Figure 12.09.18

12/09/18

Workshop 2

Observational Drawing – Figure

Figure Drawing was never my favourite part of the art class. However, at the outset we divided up into groups and my classmates introduced me to gesture drawing.  I loved it and was quickly participating  in both drawing and modelling, ranging from 20 seconds to 20 minute poses. The gesture drawings were a brilliant way of warming up the whole class and reintroduce someone to the discipline of life drawing.

During this exercise in my school placement, I quickly observed that the pupils aren’t the biggest fans of life drawing, which was challenging for me during my first weeks of teaching. Initially, I worked hard to get them to like this, but it did not work and the negative response was alarming. However, I soon worked out that the pupils were nervous because they feared that their drawings were going to be sub-standard and they would see that as a failure. However I explained that gesture drawings are not meant to be beautifully finished drawings, and once they relaxed and started to draw, we stood back and looked at the all the drawings and the pupils started to appreciate their efforts whilst realising the concept of gesture drawing. Soon the pupils started enjoying the exercise, but most important of all, started to understand  how to approach the task.

I did however notice, that for the longer poses pupils struggled. Often, I could see them drawing what they think they could see rather than looking at what is directly in front of their eyes. In order to counter this challenge, I introduced the group to monocular and spatial measurements. Monocular drawing is used with one eye closed and the pencil as a unit of measurements to map out the correct dimensions of the figure or object. Spatial measurement is mapping the surrounding environment in order to understand dimensions of the given object or figure. Personally, I prefer using the surrounding as a measurement guide, but monocular is ideal for a close up still life setting. Not surprisingly, the pupils in the class tended to prefer monocular.