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Thursday, October 15, 2020

Distortion

10/9/20 Gloria, 20-min. poses

During life drawing on Zoom, participants want the model to be close enough to the camera to see details, but if the model is too close, distortion is likely. In some of the seated poses, Gloria’s feet (closer to the camera) appeared huge while her head was tiny. In live life drawing, the same kind of foreshortening can happen, and it’s often the most challenging (and fun) kind of poses. But when the camera distorts the view even further, it can be frustrating.

10/9/20 10-min. pose
In the drawing at upper right, I realized halfway through the 20-minute pose that my proportions of the lower half of her figure were way off. Annoyed, I started thinking about whether I had time to fix it, but then I decided to exaggerate the distortion further, and then it became fun.

Video life drawing is never ideal, and yet I still prefer it to drawing from photos. On a two-dimensional screen, looking at a live pose shouldn’t be very different from a photo, but somehow it is. I can’t articulate why, though. I haven’t talked to anyone else who is doing this kind of life drawing, but it would be interesting to discuss this. If you’ve done both kinds of life drawing – in a studio and on a screen – what do you think? Is drawing from a live video pose different from a still photo?

10/9/20 5-min. poses

10/9/20 2-min. poses

10/9/20 10-min. pose

2 comments:

  1. I think both have their challenges. When you work from a photo the figures seem to have less depth. On the screen I don't think it is so noticable. But sometimes on the screen I have a hard time telling what I'm looking at, especially when I'm sketching Lefty Lucy in her strange costumes. I think part of it is my eyesight isn't as good as it was before so I don't see all the details clearly...so age is a factor too. lol These are a really nice group of sketches.

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    1. Lighting can sometimes be really spotty or poor, which doesn't help if you want to see details. If that's the case, I try to use the opportunity to focus on the light and shadows and not so much on details.

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