Life Drawing Dump

So my instructor drew on most of the drawings I liked to show corrections, unfortunately none of those will be posted. I managed to pick out the ones he didn't draw on because he liked them and ones that I didn't put into any of the portfolios this past semester:

30's

1's

3's

5's

We had a clothed model after portfolios were done, I haven't drawn clothed figures in so long I need to restudy clothing folds for next year!

3's

I started to lean towards cartooning as the session went on.

5's

CARICATURES!

I waited all year for caricature day, I was excited! We went into groups and drew each other for 10 minutes each it was super fun! I liked the one I drew of Leah and Sarah the most:

I've had pink pastel in my conte case since last year, it finally came in handy again when I had to draw Sarah's hair.

Zoo Trip

Also here are remnants of that godawful zoo trip we had to do, I could go on about how much of a bad idea that field trip was. Regardless of its ridiculousness, I still managed to get a few drawings I liked which were mostly done with ballpoint pen.

Warning, incoming rant.

Life drawing's over and for a subject that I absolutely adored before, I can't say I liked it nor disliked it this time around. Don't get me wrong I learned a lot of new things, changed my technique a bit, and improved, but at the same time I feel like I've improved only a little. The only way you could have succeeded in that class was to draw from the books. There was no room for any other style, there wasn't any encouragement to improve the way you draw if you draw differently nor was there any support to find a way to make a different style work.

It was disheartening to be told to draw like everybody else when at the same time I'm being complimented by my lines and how its expressive from the exact same person. A mixed message of "stop what you're doing" and "keep doing what you're doing" but not any assistance to make my style work. I've seen some animators and illustrators that life draw similar to me (and significantly better! I wish I was at their level) and they found a way to make their style work. Whenever I was given actual drawing technique advice the majority of it was to convert my style, something that I did try several times until I stopped because it was censoring myself and it was significantly slowing and ruining my workflow. It's not the way I think and its not how I express myself. Telling me to draw differently is telling me to not draw for myself, its robbing the very thing every artist holds dear to them: self expression. 

I hear second year is better and I've seen people who never really enjoyed life drawing improve a lot and actually create some awesome work they never thought they could. There's also the horse drawings next year! I'm excited and nervous at the same time. In the meantime I'm going go study some anatomy to prepare for next year.