Full value figure fun!

​This was such an enjoyable figure drawing to work on. Luckily I got off to a flying start with a good solid block-in. I put a lot of effort into breaking down the figure into the major planes, which, although the drawing looked somewhat like a robo-guy for a time - enabled me to establish the overall proportions pretty accurately from the very beginning. 

I wanted to produce a full value drawing and so I also devoted a decent amount of time to getting a background in that 'worked'. I used this to inform the values within the interior of the figure. It's come out well, compositionally - although it is perhaps a tad more dramatic than I originally envisaged. After the background, the main challenges were to ensure there was a nice solid feel to the standing leg and creating an interesting pattern of light in the upper torso. I had great fun trying to convey the somewhat less elastic skin type of an older model, which I think I've achieved with reasonable success. 

As so often happens, the gesture of the figure seems to have straightened up a bit over time. That is normally a product both of the artist making corrections which undermine a strong gesture and the model reducing the amount of strain in the stance over the course of the pose. Something to be mindful of in future. 

---