Life Drawing: The Female Form

The best advice I have been given on this course thus far: Don’t try to make a photographic copy of the figure. The camera can do that for you. Drawing has to be more personal than that. It passes through the artist’s soul, thus becomes a representation of how the artist sees the subject. Life drawing involves a constant interaction between the eye and the artist’s hand. Trust in what your eyes see and keep looking. Be in the moment and embrace your mistakes. Use the eraser to make marks, not to get rid of “errors”. Stop trying to polish off everything.You have to show your journey, only then can your drawing achieve humanity.

Melancholy

This was the result of my first-ever attempt at painting. I knew nothing about acrylics nor brushstrokes back then. All I knew was sunsets are beautiful. This is a painting devoid of technicalities, yet teeming with curiosity and appreciation for beauty.

Lifeless

I used up a couple of sign pens for this one. It’s made up of zillions of tiny dots.

And I call it a labor of love.

Working on the highlights

White chalk on black sugar paper

Inspired by J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”

Colour study

Quoting Paul Klee, “I paint in order not to cry”.

Watercolour study

Inspired by the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”

Charcoal and Chalk on paper (66.2 x 23.4 in)

It took 7 hours for me to finish this life-size drawing (talk about labor of love). I’m very keen to detail, hence the amount of time spent on the toenails alone. These are merely mannequins by the way.