One of the challenges of Project Megasketch was finding enough subject matter to sketch from life during the winter months. One great solution was the trio of manikins that resides in my studio. If you don't have a manikin, you're missing out. They are fabulous for many different types of studies, such as basic shapes, foreshortening, cross contours, perspective, proportion, motion, dramatic light and shadow, and so much more. Even a great model can't hold an action pose for as long as a manikin!
Set up your manikin in as natural a pose as possible. It can take awhile to find something interesting, that looks like the way a person might actually move. Once you find a pose you like, instead of changing the pose for each sketch, rotate the manikin. Draw the pose from many different angles.
A great exercise is to think of putting several manikins into a scene in perspective. Think about where your horizon line would be, and if your vantage point is standing or sitting. Sketch a bunch of them into the imaginary scene in different locations, with a specific vanishing point in mind. Determine their placement according to size, and in relation to that vanishing point.
If you fall back into the chicken-scratch type drawing that pencil and ballpoint tend to encourage, do most of your manikin work directly in ink. I ended up leaving the Prismacolors behind because of that, and forced myself to go back to ink and markers. Yes, you'll make mistakes that you then can't correct, but remember that this project is for your own self-improvement, and not to frame for somebody's wall. There's a freshness and vitality that come from that kind of direct, uncorrected work.
You can pull out all those colorful markers that you've got stashed in every drawer! Now's the time to make use of them.
I liked using my fountain pens for manikin work too. The page below was done with Noodler's Nightshade ink (one of my all time favorites), in an eyedropper-converted Pilot Petit 3 pen.
For more drama, turn off all your room lights, and put a single light on the manikin. Block in the lights and darks. Below I used Noodlers Sequoia ink in a Kaweco fountain pen, with their super smooth BB nib.
Be sure that you FILL YOUR PAGES. No cheating by leaving large, blank areas! It's fine to let the figures overlap, and yields a three dimensional effect.
To sketch the manikins below (also posted at the top of this post), I first toned the paper with black gesso and some gold sparkly watercolor splotches, then painted the manikins in iridescent gouache. Experimenting with different media was one of the things that kept me going through what could have otherwise been a tedious endeavor. That was especially true by the time I was about 2/3 of the way through.
I was very glad that the paper I'd chosen for the project was adequate for toning, priming, and mixed media as I started to push the boundaries. I'll be talking more about finding inspiration to keep yourself motivated as these posts progress. Of the 600 pages, the final 200 were where I needed to push myself into new territory in order to keep going. That became the most interesting and personally rewarding part of the journey.
If you haven't read my post about Project Megasketch, you can find it here.
Here is a link to all of the Megasketch posts.
#megasketch
#projectmegasketch
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