Categories
Charles Reid figure drawing Henry Yan My Life Drawing techniques. Watercolouring

My favourite life drawing books

My favourite life drawing books are the following: 

One is called, Henry Yan’s figure drawing techniques and tips. The other book is titled, The Natural Way to Paint, by Charles Reid. Henry Yan’s is based on pencil and charcoal techniques and Charles Reid focuses on pencil and watercolour techniques. I find both very inspiring and I have improved as an artist by studying them.

Henry Yan’s website
Charles Reid’s website

Charles Reid and Henry Yan

Categories
David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Sketch Watercolour

Life drawing at Basis

Here are a few quick sketches from my Saturday session at Basis, Stockholm. A five minute watercolour and two, two minute pencil and synthetic charcoal sketches.

Sketch by David Meldrum 20130126
Five minute watercolour sketch

Sketch by David Meldrum 20130126
Two minute sketch
Sketch by David Meldrum 20130126
Two minute sketch
Categories
David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Sketch Watercolour

Watercoloured two minute sketch

This was originally a two minute pencil sketch (20121204) on 200 gram watercolour paper. I painted it last Friday, 20130125. I was really happy with it when I did the first wash, then it became muddy as I put on further layers. I want to create a three dimensional quality without losing the vibrancy of a single wash. Live and learn!

Categories
Bill Buchman figure drawing My Life Drawing Video

Bill Buchman figure drawing demo

A figure drawing tutorial by Bill Buchman. I had to login to my Google account in order to see this video which was a bit annoying. I had to prove I was over eighteen, it was worth the effort, I like his approach to life drawing. He has a Vimeo video channel which is worth visiting. Click here.

Categories
David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Nude Watercolour

First life drawing 2013

At last, I found time to go to life drawing. I’ve been very busy since Christmas so it was a great pleasure to sketch tonight. The session was a two hour pose, the model was a real pro, stood still as a statue. The venue was, The Swedish Academy of Realistic Art in Stockholm.

I’m happy enough with the painting, I have to get used to spending two hours on a figure, for the last two years I’ve been drawing quick poses. Now I want to slow down and capture more detail, the biggest problem I have is the stiffness of the pose, I need to relax. I can see from my 5 and 10 minute poses from two years ago that they were also stiff. All I need to do is lots of these two hour sessions and I should eventually find a fluid line to my art.

Click on the image if you would like to see it in a larger format.

Watercolour Nude 2013.01.24 by David Meldrum
Watercolour Nude 2013.01.24

Categories
My Life Drawing Sketch Watercolour

Where there is a will, there is a way.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am in Northern Ireland at the moment so it is not possible for me to attend life drawing sessions in Stockholm. I really want to get started, so to avoid total frustration I sketched two photographs of naked models that I found on the internet. Am I breaking copyright laws by doing this? Anyway, I was very happy with the results, except I much prefer to sketch real models.

Categories
figure drawing Francine Van Hove My Life Drawing Nude

Life drawing master – Francine Van Hove

I was introduced to Francine Van Hove tonight when I visited LA CONCHIGLIA DI VENERE

The Nude in Art History. I found her work to be very feminine and beautiful.



Painting by Francine Van Hove
Francine Van Hove

 

 
 
Categories
David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Sketch Watercolour

Last life drawing study of 2012

This is another in the series of two minutes sketches I did on 200g watercolour paper. I spent about an hour watercolouring the figure yesterday. I am happy with my development, I started watercolouring for the first time in February 2012 so I’m delighted really with my progress. I look forward to 2013 and plan to draw and paint even more. 🙂

Sketch by David Meldrum
Two minute sketch plus one hour of watercolouring. 20121231
Categories
David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Sketch Watercolour

Having fun

Some more two minute sketches from a life drawing session that I did a while back. I painted them yesterday, it’s so nice to have time during the Christmas holidays to have some fun. I’m not looking to create a masterpiece right now; I’m just playing around, experimenting, learning.

Sketch by David Meldrum
Original two minute sketch which I watercoloured  20121230

Sketch by David Meldrum
Original two minute sketch which I watercoloured  20121230