First day of Class

Class was a lot of fun.  It is definitely for beginners but it works out well because it is all charcoal drawings of figures (or as the instructor says "shapes not figures, figures are too hard").  Neither are strong points fr me and quite frankly I am horrid at figure drawing, so for me, this class makes me feel like a beginner.  No one has to know I have had 12+ years of art schooling, and did a bunch of hand drawings for work.

I apparently have a very heavy hand when it comes to charcoal.  He commented that it was a good thing I didn't drink coffee and if I was in his Thursday night class he would gives me some beers.  I guess I am a bit intense huh?

Here are some of the rough sketches that I did yesterday.  Basically the first class was the learn how to hold the charcoal, make lines on the paper and use a "bag" to draw the figure.  You will understand the "bag" when you see the pictures.

This was the first exercise.  Right now my hand doesn't look too heavy.  

The instructor's sketch.  He came around and did an initial sketch with everyone.

And then there is my heavy hand!

Slightly better, and practicing on the inside of the "bag"

Adding some shapes on the inside to show the figure.

Again here.

This is a sketch of the figure on the upper right hand side to show how the figure lays out in the "bag".

As you can see, there are 4 sets of "dots" on each sketch.  These represent the outermost points of the figure. The high point, the low point and the two widest points.  Then you "drape" a "bag" over the figure and sketch where it would lay.  

Each week I will post what I do and document my progress as the weeks progress and hopefully see a dramatic improvement between first week and last week.