As an illustration student I’m required to take Figure Drawing I and II, and this semester I’m taking Figure Drawing II. I’ve always struggled with drawing the human body or just people in general and it has never been my absolute favorite. That probably sounds a little odd or maybe even ironic since I’m an illustration major, but I’ve always been more into drawing animals, landscapes, and objects. But since coming to Marywood, I’ve come to enjoy drawing the figure more and I know I’ve improved greatly when it comes to body proportions and such.

Last week in my Figure Drawing II class we started a new project and this is definitely the biggest piece of art I’ve made so far. I started off by taping two pieces of 24″ x 36″ pieces of paper together and clipping it to a drawing board. The drawing board/paper was so big that a friend had to help me pick it up and put it onto an easel. The whole point of this project is to create a unique collage like composition using various figures and different mediums. To start this project I brought in watercolor, acrylic paint, colored pencils, india ink and prismacolor pastels. The figures can also contain as little or as much detail as we want and we can construct them in any way we want by flipping the composition upside down or changing the direction altogether. There’s definitely a lot of freedom with this project which I am liking.

We started off this project doing 15 minute poses. For me, 15 minute poses are tough because I like to take my time when I draw and I’m a perfectionist so I want everything to look perfect. However, I did the best I could with the time I had. To start off I decided to work with watercolor and create smaller figures in hope I could get more information and detail on the page. Then I began to work more with colored pencil, pastels, and the acrylic paint I brought.

I think my favorite part of the composition so far is the biggest figure on the page (the yellow skinned lady with purple lips). I started off by drawing the model out in brown colored pencil. After completing a line drawing of her face and upper body I decided to invent a dress and paint it purple. Then to compliment the dress I painted her arms and face yellow. I still have yet to decide on a color for the hair. To make this more interesting, I came up with the idea to take a piece of lined notebook paper and paste it onto the dress. At this point I flipped the composition upside down and began to draw another figure on the lined paper in red and pink colored pencil. I will definitely be making at least one or two more posts about this in the future so everyone can see my finished piece. Here is what I’ve come up with so far.