Life drawing

A strange thing happened at life drawing yesterday. I hadn't picked up a pencil all week, I had been rushing around a DIY shop with Mark before the life class (at an unearthly hour of the morning for me!) so I had to rush to get there in time. I sat down, opened the sketchbook and just plunged right in. No settling myself, checking angles and measuring, no deep breaths and emptying my mind of all other things, I just picked up the pencil and drew, and amazingly it all seems to fall into place. I think I'm happier with these two drawing than with any of the others I've done. This week I concentrated on lines. I added a little shading and I was happy with the composition so I left it here and started another.





















The poses look quite different without the second hand, I think. I tried to give the lines some varying weight. Some of my figures have looked almost like cut-outs but I feel I've made some improvement here. The hand draped on the back of the chair gave me some trouble - at first it looked like a tarantula and I was tempted after a while to simply rub it out and forget it, but with a bit of perseverence it's not too bad although it could be better! HB and 3B pencil.