Drawing from life as often as possible makes you a better artist.
Sketching from life is a time-honored way to learn to draw. If you can draw the human body, you can draw just about anything. The life-drawing class or studio has always been a cornerstone of an artist's education. No matter what your main medium is, regular drawing from life will make you a better artist. Also, going to a life-drawing class is a great way to meet other serious artists.
Instructions
1. Clip your newsprint pad to your drawing board. Make sure your board is propped up on your easel so you can see both your drawing and the model. Set up your easel so you can stand up to draw. This way, you can more easily back away from your drawing to assess its progress.
2. Do a "gesture drawing" with the 3B pencil first. A gesture drawing gets the basic shape of the figure quickly in a few minutes. Keep your pencil moving, and try not to lift it from the paper too often. Don't worry about whether the drawing looks realistic or not; you can change it later. Think about how the model feels as she or he makes the gesture, and where most of the weight is supported. Imagine making the gesture yourself as you draw.
3. Refine the gesture drawing by erasing and re-doing some of the lines. Do this for about 15 to 30 minutes. This is called the extended gesture drawing.
4. Place a piece of tracing paper over your gesture drawing. Now attempt to find the contour of the figure, still using the 3B pencil. Move your pencil on the paper as if it were an ant crawling along the edges of the figure. This is a slow, careful process. Use the underlying gesture drawing as a guide, but don't be afraid to disregard it if your contour drawing is more accurate.
5. Place another piece of tracing paper over your contour drawing, clipping it or taping it to the board. Now you have three layers of paper. Begin to shade the drawing, finding the shadows that the light casts on the body from the body's own contours. The objective here is to render the three dimensionality of the body. Where the shadows are very dark, use your 6B pencil.
