Observational Figure Drawing

Artist Statement

The processes that guided this piece were completely new to me, as in a very brief amount of time I had to sketch multiple people from life and observational drawing has never been of much interest to me. The primary focus of this study was to draw quickly while getting the general form of the body down as precisely and to-scale as possible. After the rough sketching, I decided to go into further into detail to make the sketches as realistic as possible, in other words I wanted to recognize the figures on paper as the real people I was referencing.

This piece was entirely made with graphite pencil, starting off with a regular HB pencil as I figured out the general form and outline of the people I was drawing. I then moved onto a more saturated and rich graphite pencil, a 2B, which allowed me to carefully layer the graphite to build up shadows and areas of light. I decided to stay away from tortillions for this project as I felt that the sketched look added to the overall vibe of the piece and also having a rough surface made it easier to try and incorporate texture.

Very much like my last observational drawings, the process of drawing people from life was incredibly experimental. Throughout my sketching I constantly revised as this is already in the nature of figure gesture drawing. Letting my hand move loosely while sketching not only followed the assignments instructions but also allowed me to make "mistakes" and to revisit the form till I felt confident enough to darken a line. When I went back to my sketches to elaborate on them I was also very experimental with what pencils to use and how to best put what I had in mind on paper. Overall, I am super happy with this piece and glad that I got the experience of figure drawing as it seems much less daunting and much more interesting to me now.