Drawing from memory vs from a model

Bizarrely this one captured her better than drawing direct from lifel.

The tutor made a good point; looking at the original drawing – and looking to improve it – you had to ask yourself to remember if the models shoulders / weight / hips / arms really were at that angle / length / position etc… ie all the questions you should also be asking your eyes whilst you are drawing in the first place…

Also it was funny everyone started to contort themselves a little bit whilst doing this drawing from memory; without the original model, we used ourselves as reference…

I know mum – who’s an illustrator – does this when drawing expressions of people for her work, so I ought not to be surprised really – it was just funny in a room full of people doing the same thing!