Open Sketch at The Art Students League

Recently, I've been attending some Open Sketch sessions at the Art Students League.  Open Sketch is an hour-and-a-half in a room with a nude model.  They have two short-pose rooms and one long-pose room.  In the long-pose room there's a model holding a single pose for the entire time.  In the short pose rooms it's a series of one-minute poses, followed by some five-minute poses, a few tens, and then a twenty-minute pose.  

I go to one of the short-pose rooms because I'm trying to work on getting faster and more accurate.  Towards that end, I've been drawing with markers instead of something comfortable and easy like charcoal.  Markers scare me.  You have to know what you're doing because that's a line you can't smudge or erase away.  I'm doing my best to make stronger lines with fewer hesitations.  You can see my progress below.  I've tried to organize the sketches in the order I created them. You can easily see the difference between the one-minute sketches and the longer ones.

This was the first session I went to:

This model did a lot of poses with her back to me or her face turned away.  I felt uninspired, so as you can see, I started sketching some people in the room.

My second session:

We had a curvy model and I loved sketching her!  Previously, I've always had very thin models.  It was wonderful to draw all those curves (and it was actually personally very reinforcing about the beauty of my own body).

Third session:

I feel like I had a bit of a style break through in this session.  That black drawing (the last one -- lower right) is how I wish I could draw right away.  Bold lines, simple shapes, representational.  I'm hopeful that I will get there with more practice.

Session number four:

A lot of this model's poses were really boring.  But I feel proud of myself.  Without conscious intention I often try to make my drawings "pretty."  It's a terrible habit and I feel like I pushed myself here.  I caught what this model actually looks like -- especially in the face sketch (third from the bottom).

And my most recent sketch adventure:

I can see progress here.  I'm definitely getting faster, more accurate, and using a more confident line!  Just need to keep practicing!

You know, most of us spent at least twelve years of school reading and writing every single day.  Therefore, we can read and write.  Drawing is a skill like reading and writing.  I have to believe that all things are possible with practice.  Do you agree or disagree?

Thanks for stopping by!