Putting my feet up

It's a sign that I'm feeling more relaxed, not just that I've time to put my feet up, but that I've the inclination to draw purely for the fun of it. I get plenty of opportunity to draw hands - for instance if you're in a waiting room and there's nothing more interesting to draw, but situations where you can draw feet are more limited. You'd get funny looks if you tried that in the waiting room.

You can see that in the first drawing I've struggled with the arrangement of toes and I realised that I'd do better to allow more room for the subject, well I have got size 13 feet (English size 13, that is). I used the cushion and radiator in the background to double-check the proportions of the feet.

The drawing on the middle left is a better scale for drawing the toes as individual shapes. The drawing middle, right, proved a strain on my foot, with the toes bent back like that. Ouch. Just managed to hold it long enough to draw the basics, but my foot was wavering as I drew.

Heel and Toe

In the bottom left drawing I started at the top with the big toe and by the time I'd drawn the rest of the foot I realised I'd changed scale and went back and enlarged my big toe. Like I need bigger feet?

The final drawing looked odd to me. Somehow I thought my heel shouldn't look as big as that. But it did. Really.

I like my A6 sketchbook for such drawings as the size of the page sets an upper limit for the size of the drawing and it doesn't seem such a big deal to start a fresh drawing.

Life Class

At this time of year, with the delights and distractions of summer over (summer, where did it go? I seemed to be working at my computer all hours), it's good to settle down to some absorbing activity, hence this two hours-worth of foot drawing. I realise I'd like to attend a life class again and just draw and draw the demanding subject of a human body, arms, legs, head, neck . . . ankles, ankles are such a mystery, aren't they? But with all I've had on recently I'm not ready to pencil in 2 or 3 hours of my week to a regular commitment. I'll just try drawing portraits, figures and body parts as and when I have the time and inclination.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk