Kat Johnston

Category: life drawing

  • Life Drawing / Sketch: The morning after.

    Kat Johnston Sketch: A nude I drew last night… perhaps I shouldn’t put the word nude in here. Googling might get a whole lot more fun.

    Mmmm, I am starting to enjoy the wonders of raspberry tea right now. It is both tasty and delicious. That is what I am drinking as I sit here this morning, doing this post.

    So I think that it is going to become required to put up at least one picture a week that results from my life-drawing thingies on Wednesday nights, provided that I go to them. This is one of my picks from this week. Yup, I’m going a full nude this time, but surely the world can take it? It’s just a few lines on a page, after all.

    I actually played around a bit with artistic license on this particular sketch. It was nearing the end of the session, and the girl just seemed a bit exhausted, and I have to admit, I was kinda getting to that point too. My back was being an utter pain in the… uhhh… back!

    So anyhow, yes… it isn’t true to the person laying there, in that she doesn’t have hair that covers most of her face, or looked completely and utterly bushed… but I am happy with it. Of course there are errors, but hey, as I keep trying to tell myself, what can be expected from a 15 – 20 minute sketch? I’m almost tempted to refine this one into something better, later.

    That’s about it for this morning, though I might post another picture later too, if I have anything to say, or a reason to say it. For now, I had best get into the day and try to start it properly.

  • Life Drawing / Sketch: A figure and a face.

    Kat Johnston: venturing into life-drawing this week, here’s an ‘actual’ sketch… as in, one that isn’t a cartoon.

    How’s that for a literal title? And how’s this for a proper sketch!

    I must admit that I don’t draw from actual figures all that often – I don’t really get too much of a chance to tell someone to pick a pose and sit in front of me naked for 20 minutes. The last time I did a proper ‘sit down and draw from a person sitting there’ thing was years ago. Soooo, when I found out that there is a place in Brisbane (at the Metro, actually) which has weekly life-drawing sessions, I was more than ready to drag a friend along and give it a go.

    I find it rather amusing that with a fully-naked figure sitting there in front of me, I’ve decided here and there to draw parts which really require no nakedness at all. Both last week and this week I have found myself focusing on just the face, or a hand at some point, rather than the whole. I know that I could probably get a friend to sit still for a while to let me draw their face, but I guess the glitch with that is that I’d then probably have to show them what I just drew. I’m sure that I don’t have to mention that drawing from a photo is just not the same.

    Today’s picture is plucked from my sketch-book from last night’s session. The up-tilted face and the partial figure are two of my favourite drawings from the evening. The model was absolutely fantastic for figure studies with well-defined muscles, a wonderfully interesting body/face and an excellent selection of poses, including an incredible kung-fu ‘crane’ style one for a minute there!

    So yes – if you’re in Brisbane and want to give it a go (and you should, even if you’ve never picked up a pen before), check out Drawn From Life. All you need to take is yourself and something to draw with – easy peasy!