Life Drawing - Robin 3

Today I once again worked with soft pastels, chalks and charcoal on black, I really like the effects I can create with these media. 

Today's poses were musically based, and this first pose I think was about 10 minutes, I had quite a bit of trouble "getting into" the drawing - the proportions kept being very off, and I'm still not happy with these, particularly the huge legs. Also I still cant get the knack of drawing Robins face, even though it's so expressive. 

The next activity was a sequence of poses, ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in length. I really wanted to try and create a "full" looking composition instead of have my drawings neatly arranged, so played around with swapping out colours to make it less confusing while still overlapping drawings. I really like the effect of the final pose larger on top in charcoal. 

Next was another sequence of poses, this time 3 minutes each, but similar to last week the poses were on rotation, but only 3 times this week. Also Robin moved along to the music that was playing, most noticeably in the 2nd pose, moving his arm along to the beat as if beating a drum (actually a hula hoop) Again, still cant get the face down, though feeling better about the proportions on these ones, and I really think adding the white chalk highlights help the drawing to pop a little and be less sketchy and flat.

The last pose was a seated, slightly longer pose, about 15/20 minutes. I had real difficulty with drawing the proportions of this one because of the perspective, I tried to start with the hand nearest me and work back along the arm, but I'm still not happy with the arm. Need to work on my skills in drawing objects coming closer towards me. Robins left leg in the first post above was bent towards me and it really doesn't show in the drawing - the leg just looks too big. Also, below, I think I did my usual trick of making the head too small, but Im quite pleased with the other body proportions. Initially I was adding the colour highlights from the heatlamp, but this was then moved mid pose, and the highlights were now coming from a different side, but obviously were not red, so I added these in too, and Im quite happy with the outcome - I think it helps him look a little more 'placed'.