Inthepenultimate
articleofhisfive-part
series onthebuilding
blocksoflifedrawing,
Draw Brightontutor
JAKESPICERturnshis
attentionto theskin- Surface
FIGURE DRAWINGA
s we seek to better
understand the figure,
we often direct our attention
to the deepest anatomy – those
hidden masses that define the
structure and rhythm of our
model’s physique. In our haste to
understand the interactions of
bone and muscle, we bypass
the one thing that every life
drawing should reference:
the largest organ in the
body, skin. In this
penultimate article of a
five-part figure drawing
series I’ll be focusing on the
skin and the marks we use to
record our observations of it.
The surface of skin defines the
practice life drawing – when we
draw a clothed model, we are
drawing a character draped in the
trappings of their selected identity.
Clothed only in skin, a life model
becomes essential, universal, and
the trust implied through the model’s
nakedness allows artists in a life
class to be vulnerable and take
creative risks.
In a life drawing, the skin of the
model becomes our inevitable
subject. When we draw the contour
of our model’s figure, it is the horizon
line of skin that we are recording,
wrapping around the body and out
of sight. Shapes of shadow are cast
onto skin, darkening its surface
whilst highlights pick out specular
reflections. It is upon this uniting
protective layer that we see the storyof our models’ lives played
out – from the stretchmarks
of childbirth and the creases of
repeated expressions, to the
stubbly suggestion of a day
without shaving and a toothbrush-
flick of freckles, still fading from
a recently passed summer.
Artists & Illustrators 61