Practice

This is yesterday's and today's effort of sketching Francois Gerard's 'Madame Recamier' dated 1805.

It has been done with mechanical pencil (HB core) and white Signo Pen for the reflection in the eyes.

I'm really liking the intimation of fabric draping, the seat cushion shading, the body pose (especially the neck and chest where there is a twist at the waist), and the arms/hands that seem to be in good proportion to the body.  The most challenging part were the eyes and mouth/lips, and that may have been because of how small they needed to be.  The eyes are likely still a bit too large -- but after all the tries, I'm resting my effort with them and am accepting the mouth/lips as ok.

This was a lesson in doing more than a face and capturing a pose of the full body--which I don't normally do, and I did it!!

My process started with the columns first, then the feet progressing with the garment all the way to the head plus adding the cushion and chaise frame along the way.  Again, the full hair style isn't included, because I ran out of room on my substrate due to my process. 

Out of curiosity, how do you work with drawing full-body poses (head to foot, foot to head)?  Also, how do you ensure there is enough room on your substrate for the full image, if you have a plan of what you're creating?