Back With 'The Natural Way to Draw'!

Ok I left off following Nicolaides' excellent practice sessions in 'The Natural Way to Draw' sometime ago as the sessions started to need real models (with elements of light and shadow etc.. ). I only knew about posemaniacs.com at the time (a site that is really great if you wish to just practice figure gesture drawings and structure) and so I kind of lost the trail from there...

Sanguine oil base pencil on Fabriano 45% cotton Paper
Size: about A5
This particular piece was drawn from a reference picture from another site  - Croquis Cafe , another great site for reference models to practice from.

However as you know I recently found pixelovely.com, which has structured class drawing sessions (from pictures of actual models), that has been a life saver for me to easily practice my figure drawing in a more comprehensive manner. Of course ideally one would like to practice from 'live' models, but that is not really practical for me at this time with constraints on ones purse strings. However I doubt I'd be able to get in as much practice as the convenience from following these online class sessions affords me, with live models.. I get to brush up on my skills daily, keeping well warmed up and ready for when I do get the chance to draw from a live model!..

So to get to where I was going, I realized I'd be able to follow Nico's sessions now with the help of pixelovely.com.  

His methods can really be mentally draining but are, without a doubt, superior in teaching the skills needed. He will not allow one to just draw what one sees before them but to feel the pose utterly and completely in every muscle of ones own body, to experience the fullness of the model inside and out. The most intense concentration of the mind is needed for the entire session... 

Then all that is left is usually just a tangle of crazy lines,... lol. 

For example - the memory drawing: where one remembers three short poses (about 30sec each) in a row without drawing, and then, from memory, quickly drawing them all in a minute... These are usually completely unintelligible at the end of the session and won't be seeing the light of day here, that's for sure!.. 

Anyway, here are a few modeled drawings (tangled lines) with a black balled point pen on manila card from the past week!

Nico explains this exercise in great depth but in summary - one starts from the center, building up the form (no outlines). Then one is to feel the form by pushing/darkening (further away) or pulling/less darkening (closer) .. No attention at all is given to the tone or hues of the subject in this exercise.

30 minutes

30 minutes

I haven't been able to just follow his sessions alone though, without drawing some intelligible drawings for myself. However, now I am able to incorporate the skills learnt from my sessions following Nico in these more stylized drawings ... :)
(these are the piece's I'll usually be giving away free during my weekly
Sunday Free Giveaway's on my facebook page - Jacqueline Gomez Fine Artist)

'FREE SUNDAY GIVEAWAY' 13th July'14
Charcoal Pencil & White chalk pencil on Canford Gun Metal Grey paper
Size: about A4

'FREE SUNDAY GIVEAWAY' 21st July'14
Charcoal Pencil on Newsprint paper
Size: about A4

Ok then, extremely long post over (teach me for putting it off for so long!). 

See you soon with more Nico' tangles!.. :)