Most of my life drawing and portrait sessions are utilizing live models. On my 2nd day of class last week I did a drawing of a nude female. It was during my private session. I have to tell you that I found the experience very intimidating. I had to look at her, observe and then translate that observation onto paper. She was a beautiful woman and my fear was that I would not do her justice. She would pose for 20 minutes, then take a break, then pose another 20 minutes for a period of 2 hours. I struggled at first with the proportions, but eventually I got them. When my session finished, the body pretty much resembled hers, but the face didn’t. My instructor commented that I had drawn a very pretty face, but it didn’t look like the model.
Today my lesson starts out with a demonstration on how to draw the face. I am instructed that you start with an oval. I divide that into thirds to get the average placement for the eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin and ears. Until now I never realized how big the ears and nose are in terms of the makeup of the face. I mean noses start at the eyebrows and take up almost one-third of the face. I also get a very detailed lesson on the muscles in the face, where they are located and how they affect the facial features. It was like taking an anatomy class of the head. I learn the different facial inclinations and how to align the features for that inclination. This is a lot of information to take in all at once and then begin immediately to try and sketch from a photo given to me. I am required to enlarge the drawing. It would have been easier if I could have used the same dimensions as the picture, but the idea here is to learn how to draw a large portrait from a smaller photo. By the end of my morning session, I am exhausted. I am still suffering from the effects of my cold. I abandon class for the afternoon. I go back to the apartment and have a rest and then meet up with my room mates for dinner. Tomorrow is another day.
Cindy Mochel Livermore 