Drawing Group Sketches

Got my pencils back into figure drawing again. Posted above are two 20 minute poses with the Dupont Drawing group. I'm thankful that the group exists and that the Church of the Pilgrims allows us to use their space for a minimal fee. Getting out of the house to draw beats staying inside, attempting to draw, and then falling prey to a plethora of distractions, hence failing at the attempt to draw.

I still seem unsure of my value shifts as the range is still around heavy darks and lights. The figure's mass is also unclear from my renderings. Anatomy and proportion should also be reviewed. Seeing truthfully and drawing truthfully keeps becoming more of a daunting task than I expect it to be. However, it's an exciting kind of daunting and not the crippling sort, so the whole experience becomes a fantastic run!

Got the sketches critiqued by an art teacher, and hopefully, I can interpret the figure better next time.

Work is going well. The world is still revolving. God is good.

Psalm 8

LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

You put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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Pondering on this passage as Life Drawing exercises shall begin soon. Figure sculpture would also be a treat if God wills it. The human figure is a fascinating, fascinating subject to study, but it still, truly, does boggle my mind. Why is God mindful of us? His Grace is such a strange gift to creatures made of dust; not that the gift in and of itself is aberrant (it is, as a matter of fact, most magnificent and is a very eloquent expression of the character of the Giver) but that the beneficiaries of said gift are undeserving.

The psalmist in the passage, instead of lingering on the question and drawing out why God could possibly choose mere human beings, focuses on how He instituted man's place, ordained his responsibility in his stewardship of creation, and ultimately brings back praise to His majestic name all over the world.

As these studies continue, may He show me more of Him to be in awe of, may He allow me to be an instrument through which others may also "taste and see that the LORD is good" and may He increase as i decrease.

Soli Deo Gloria!