The Flesh Pots of Sparta

I was going to call this "300 Naked Men", but a friend has just put up a post with the title "2 Naked Men..." Quick and the dead in the blogosphere.

300 Sketch, Megan Hitchens, May 2014, red chalk on buff paper

I have always loved life drawing. The human body, in its many forms, is endlessly fascinating. I have been to a lot of life classes over the years with many different models - fat, thin, young, old, ghostly pale redheads, honey-skinned dark curly mops, everything in between and beyond. The best was probably the thin, fragile, ancient man with the long white beard and hair in a top knot. I was even a life model myself when I was about eight months' pregnant (more job offers than I could cope with, but it was an experience I would never swap).

Back it up with some basic anatomy study and life drawing is a great way to learn about how the human body looks and behaves and how gravity acts on it. Also, bodies are difficult to draw, all those weird shapes and strange intersections. If you can convincingly draw a body, you can convincingly draw just about anything.

But there is a problem. Life models are not cheap (and nor should they be), male models can be a bit like hen's teeth, and life classes ebb and flow in terms of popularity. Sometimes there are three or four on offer around a particular area, other times nothing. And then, when they are on, the time may not be suitable. At the moment I can kiss goodbye to midweek evening classes because I need to be home with my children.

So I have had to come up with an alternative.

When I was in Year 11, doing school by correspondence, I attended a Department of Education week-long art workshop. We were SUPPOSED to do life drawing, but some of the parents objected so we got a semi-naked model. It was still a good class, it was still a good opportunity, but it wasn't optimum (don't question the value of the uninterrupted line).

My alternative to a life class is even less optimum, but it is a damned sight better than nothing. "I can't..." is no longer acceptable. If I can't do a particular thing, then let's see what I CAN do instead. And here is my solution

300

The film. About the Spartans and the Persians. With David Wenham in it. You know the one.

Personally, I don't much like it. The violence is gratuitous and cartoonish, the homoeroticism is overdone and tedious, it villifies the other, it drags like concrete overshoes in places. It does have its plusses. Visually it is beautiful. You could pause it at almost any point and have an amazing poster people would pay good money for. The two palettes (amber for day, cool blue for night) are gorgeous. But what it has in spades, and which fits my purpose, is acres of male flesh.

It is not the same as having a real model standing before you. I can't walk around to get an angle I like. There is not the depth or the subtle play of light. And most of the time the Spartans have their little shorts on, and their cloaks. But there is still enough to see form and musculature, to see how weight is placed on a foot or arm. And the almost treacle-pace flow of some of the battle scenes gives ample time to pause on interesting poses that I could not get from a life model (well, not without them falling over after about a minute).

These sketches are about getting back the ability to make up figures, about re-acquainting myself with the human body and its structure. They are about seeing what is really there rather than what my brain THINKS is there. So I made a couple of rules which may seem odd, but they make sense to me:

No sketch is to take more than three minutes.

No more than two colours to be used (preferably one)

300 Sketch, Megan Hitchens 2014, red chalk on buff paper. Actually, this is my favourite. It was also my fastest. No time to think can give great results.

300 Sketch, Megan Hitchens, May 2014, red chalk on buff paper.

I tend to overwork and fuss, so these two simple rules kept me in check and made me just worry about what is important - the form. Many of the sketches don't have faces, or only hints of a face. I ran out of time. Oh, and if you know about Spartans weapons and armour, good for you. I don't want to know. What I put in is a suggestion of what is on the screen. It is the body I am worried about. Everything else is secondary.

There are over a dozen of these sketches now, and growing, so I have picked a handful just to show you what I am doing. Frankly, I'm getting a little bored. Time to go to the AGNSW and start sketching the statuary.

300 Sketch, Megan Hitchens, May 2014, red chalk on buff paper

Okay, they aren't great (some of the proportions are a little off), but they are a good exercise and they show what CAN be done when the best or favoured option is not available. I'm not satisfied with them, but I am happy with them.

Hmmm, that's something of a first.