Digital Life Drawing

The last times I went to the nude figure drawing class I took my Laptop with me to try doing it digitally.

This was the first time I was drawing digitally from life at all. At first it was hard to handle the colors in the short time frame, because the models at our figure drawing class pose only for about 10 – 15 minutes.

While working analog this is no trouble because typically you just use one or two colors if you are working in colors at all. But working digital there seems no reason why you shouldn’t use all colors and go photo-realistic.

So I realized after some pictures, that I would have to slow down and drop the colors for the moment and concentrate on getting the values right.

After some warm-up I went back to the colors to give them a new try. It is difficult at first but after some time I was just stunned by the possibilities. As hard as it is, as much it can teach you.

Digital life drawing is killing two birds with one stone. It is a great training for your digital painting skills because you are pushed to try new techniques to achieves your goals (getting a realistic look in a short amount of time) and it is also a great way to study colors.

I couldn’t come up with an other medium that allows you so easily (after some practicing) to study the full range of color without any handicaps from the medium itself in such a fast way.