This confidence develops by having a very short time frame to draw the person in a certain position until they move into another one, so I have no other choice than to trust my instincts and draw as I see the person stood in front of me, not worrying too much about the details. My charcoal strokes tend to be quite timid and raspy but I am working on building up my skills to make more confident, fluid lines.

Life drawing often is also great to help me understand proportions of a human body in relation to itself as well as it's surroundings. I didn't realise that I naturally draw heads a bit larger than they actually are, this is probably because of my love for doodling cartoonish characters! I have made a conscious effort to correct these proportion errors when doing my life drawing.

We use plenty of techniques other than charcoal within these life drawing classes which take me away from my artistic comfort zone such as using different mediums of drawing and techniques such as drawing simultaneously with both the left and right hands or using a rubber to show the highlighted parts of the model on a totally blackened canvas.

I feel that these life drawing classes are helping me greatly with my understanding of proportions and drawing styles.

Watch my video about contrasting shadows on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuDxbmF_rpk