Society of Illustrators Workshop

Two nights in a row I've been going to drawing workshops! This one was my first time ever at the Society of Illustrators mansion on the Upper East Side. Wow, what an inspirational place! All the walls were festooned with illustrations from so many amazing artists from the past century or so, and it was both humbling and inspiring.

Tonight's workshop was presided over by Michael Massen, who instructed everyone on how to determine how fabric would fall on a figure - stuff I have never learned formally how to do, and it was eye-opening. The practical advice explained and delineated exactly why folds fall the way they do, and how to render them - it was soooo goood to learn! I had never been taught how to render draping, and while I can draw it from a model, my own ad libbed renderings never seem absolutely right to me. We basically drew from nudes, then drew overlays to predict how the fabric would fold, and finally draw the clothed figure to see how our work compared to the reality. I felt really inspired by both the environs, the lecture, and the lesson. I was like a kid in a candy store (and at MY age!). And I think it shows in the sketches -- moreso than the day before at the Erotic Drawing Salon.

This was held this evening so like yesterday's paintings, I'll upload them as soon as I can photograph them in daylight.

Edit: Here they are, in order of the exercises, from nudes to projected draping, to actual rendering of clothing on the same pose. Sorry for the bad scans - it's been cloudy and the newsprint doesn't help. Methinks I need a proper scanner...

Besides the glamour of the setting (historical illustration greatness!), the educational setting and the presence of equally serious attendees (except for a couple of guys who kept talking a few seats beside me so much so that I wanted to shush them like at the movies), it helps that the model was a joy to draw. There was a female model too who would have been more helpful for me since I would like help drawing women's fashions more, but she was obstructed from view because of my positions near the stage. Still, I'd come draw the male model by himself anytime... what a physique.