Experimentation:

The following are the results of the life drawing in class, where we were instructed to draw the poses of a model using minimalistic sketching to help show simple forms and expressions. They were split into 2-minute drawings, 1 minute, and 30 seconds. It had been some time since I last drew, but upon returning to the craft, I noticed my progress quickly accelerating. Although I wasn't overly impressed with my initial outcomes, I could see tangible improvements over the weeks. Utilizing various techniques—such as sketching with curves and circles or employing cubic shapes—proved invaluable. These methods helped establish the basic structure of forms and clarified their pose, direction, and action. I was particularly pleased with my later sketches, which captured stances accurately, quickly, and efficiently.

The following are different types of sketches, where we were instructed to draw the poses of a model using even further minimalistic sketching using lines of action to help show simple forms and expressions. We now had only 30, 15, and 5 seconds per drawing.
The final drawing at the end of these ones is a memory test to see if we can remember the pose and draw it from memory.

In our next class, we had a second sketching session featuring a live male model. This time, the instructor guided us to approach the human form differently, encouraging us to identify, delineate, and capture its basic shapes using cubes and circles, all within approximately two minutes per sketch. I found this exercise to be incredibly enjoyable. While there were no "finished" products, the techniques we employed offered unique and efficient ways to represent form.

I can now see how my drawing habits have already incorporated many of these fundamental principles, and I believe this understanding will further solidify their application in my practice.

We were also once again instructed to create simplistic lines-of-action-like drawings within 30, 15 or 5 seconds to help practice basic forms as a beginner's warmup task.

In this sketching session with our model, the objective was to meld simplistic lines of action with form depiction using shapes. This endeavour was intriguing, as a couple of weeks ago I spent time honing in on a personal technique to encapsulate efficient perspective and form representation. However, this classroom task encouraged a departure from my detailed structural approach. I adopted a freer line sketching technique, which not only sped up the process but also liberated my wrist movements, ushering in more curves as opposed to rigid straight lines.

A notable addition to this exercise was the incorporation of imaginary horizontal and vertical lines (construction lines). By envisioning a vertical line and identifying which part of the model's body intersected with it first from the left or right viewpoint, it offered insight into the model's weight distribution and the prominence of limbs along these axes. To me, this practice mirrored the utility of a grid in Maya or a ruler system in design software, serving as a reliable aid in aligning body parts accurately. It was instrumental in determining the precise location or positioning of various body parts.

Despite the minimalist approach, transcending the basic lines of action and stick-figure drawings, I noticed, due to my own experimentation and adaptation, that the inclusion of spherical shapes at the top of joints significantly enhanced the clarity of limb placement, foreground, and background differentiation. Although my sketches didn't morph into recognizable characters, they vividly showcased form and perspective in a time-efficient manner.

A shift in my pencil grip also heralded a new rhythm in sketching. Holding the pencil flatter against the page with a pinching grip facilitated a broader range of arm movement, reducing wrist reliance. This evoked a skating motion on the paper, resonating well with my recent ice-skating adventures, spurred by the explorative spirit of this PLP project. This newfound technique, reminiscent of cursive writing, facilitated a continuous, fluid motion, akin to gliding on ice, where my arm navigated through smooth tangents and angles with fewer halts.

This "cursive drawing" technique, as I've come to term it, has been revelatory. The seamless glide of my hand across the paper, punctuated by gentle descents to etch lines, mirrored the swift, joined-up handwriting technique. Even as my hand momentarily lifted off the paper, the motion remained unbroken, akin to a figure skater's glide with brief aerial transitions. It became a rhythmic dance of tracing contours, capturing the sway and curves of the subject, and imprinting them on the paper with a rhythmic, almost choreographed, finesse. This exercise not only refined my sketching technique but also unveiled a poetic motion that now accompanies my pencil strokes effortlessly.