For this exercise I was asked to draw a model in a comfortable position and position myself so that I was facing my model with an interesting viewpoint.

Being in lockdown my options for models are limited. Two very young children, a baby or my husband?

My husband reluctantly agreed to be my model.

I started my work by trying to familiarise myself with his figure by doing some quick preliminary sketches in charcoal. I did this whilst he was sitting in a chair working at his laptop. These sketches were very quick no longer than 60 seconds each, mostly because he kept moving. Below is my work.

I then asked him to pose for me in our hallway on the floor for 5 minutes at a time. I chose our hallway as it is white and bright.

This time I used a pencil on white paper and mostly focussed on proportions and using just basic lines to describe him. Below are my drawings.

I am pleased with these drawings, mostly because I did them so quickly, but I do feel that I managed to capture the essence of my husband. Due to the 5 minute time limit I wasn’t able to fix obvious mistakes, like the seemingly narrow wrists in my first drawing or the lack of his second foot. What I am pleased with in my first drawing though is my use of perspective which is obvious in my husbands foot being so large in comparison to the rest of his body due to it being closer to me.

With my second drawing I haven’t quite captured the shape of his face correctly, mainly his chin. However I do feel I have captured the way he stands. How he pushes his stomach out and stands with a slouch.

I was then asked to work on two larger 10 minute drawings. This time I worked on sugar paper and used chalk pastels. This is a medium I haven’t used yet in this course but I felt like my drawings needed to be more interesting than just black charcoal or grey pencil on a white page.

I tried to draw from the middle of my husbands body out towards the feet and head and I tried to use quick marks rather than drawing outlines. I tried to keep my marks loose at first and then work bolder as I because happy with my proportions.

For my first drawing I drew my husband standing up but bent over. After a couple of minutes he was not happy in this position so we had to keep stopping and starting. I used black and white chalk on a pale brown piece of sugar paper. Below is my drawing.

I am pleased with my drawing, especially my proportions. I surprised myself that it did actually look like him. However I struggled with his feet and hands and his feet especially, look unfinished. I think I have used the excuse that because this was just a quick 10 minute drawing I didn’t have time to focus on the feet in any more detail, however I worry that in longer drawings later on in the project I will not have this excuse?

For my second drawing I drew my husband sitting down in a similar position to one of my 5 minute drawings. This position was mostly picked out of necessity of comfort rather than it being the most interesting position. This time was my final drawing for this exercise and I definitely felt a lot more confident. I added in another colour- blue to hopefully make my drawing more exciting. I felt my marks were bolder and more expressive this time. Below is my drawing.

Some of my proportions and accuracies are not as strong as some of my previous drawings- maybe because I felt more confident my focus was lacking? Both of his fore arms are badly shaped and look wrong and I think his face is too large. I do however feel like I have captured the essence of my husband here and I do prefer my more expressive use of colour and line in this drawing. However I am aware that I really need to work on proportions and accuracy further.

My next step was to do some more quick drawings of these poses, changing my position and changing my drawing medium. I used biro, white pencil, oil pastels, tip ex pen and Indian ink. I really enjoyed this part of the exercise and really loosened up. I focussed less on accuracy (as is evident in my drawings.) But I focussed more on the marks I was making with the media I was using. These drawings were very quick and ranged between 1 and 3 minutes.

I then decided to do some very quick drawings. I changed my models to my three children. These drawings were very quick, sometimes only a line or two. Whilst my 6 year old was able to stay still for about 60 seconds, my 7 month old baby wasn’t able to stay still at all! Below are my drawings.

I feel these rapid drawings did really challenge me as my children literally couldn’t stay still for long so I was forced to draw at speed. This absolutely loosened up my wrist and really focussed my attention on single lines or marks.