Draw 'til you drop - figure drawing Day 1 - afternoon session

Well by break time I needed a little coffee, it was a really late night and I need some bean juice to keep me going... I did bake vegan chocolate chip squares for the group, now I need something to help wash it down.

Below is the start of my drawing of John. He is to the left of the set up. I am holding the pad on my Mabel french style portable box easel.

I drew this piece with a range of B - 6B pencils on watercolour paper. It just didn't seem right around the head area until I used the blue copic marker to punch it up a bit more.

The last session of the day consisted of a long pose done in a couple of sessions. The great thing about the angle that I was sitting at was the great reflection in the mirror behind the nude model. It took two sittings to get the figure drafted out in red pencil.

Afterward, I worked into the piece over top of the red with graphite on the canvas paper which makes really nice cross hatch like texture when shading. I am really happy with how far my skill has come along throughout the day.

With some time left on the clock, I moved to the opposite side of the room and focused on the models reflection in the mirror. I loosened up my line work and quickly drew this before the wind was completely out of my sails. By 5:10, I dropped ;( 

8+ hours with very little breaks, at I skill I have very little experience with......... I lost my steam. As soon as I got home, I fell into bed for a quick and necessary recovery nap. Wow, this level of intensity really took it out of me, but in a good way.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.