Next came a group project. We each got a body-part by lottery: torso, head, arms, or legs. Then we went off in search of drawings by masters that had examples of these parts, selected one drawing each, and we put together the sum. Note that our search was blind, and that this critter almost looks like the pieces fit is entirely an accident.

I did the arms, drawing from a portrait by J.A.D. Ingres for reference.

As the last person to add detail to the drawing, I studied what we had and dubbed the final result "Man With Two Hats." In class presentations, it was suggested he looked like some sort of stripper: wearing a hat, a bow, sleeves, and nothing else. I guess his second hat would be held over privates in a show or something.

I learned in this that I can draw. Maybe it's time consuming, but given sufficient reference, I can actually make half-decent outlines of things. What a boost to the confidence factor.

Actually, to add to that, Ingres is absolutely outstanding with his use of line. The work I was looking at (and apparently he is very famous for this) had just the basic outline of the subject and a few thin lines for internal shape. There was no shading at all. Lines flickered (dark and light variation) to suggest depth or shadow now and then, but it was just thin lines, very bare minimum. And the portraits were incredibly lifelike, as if far more was contained in the drawing than just an outline. I tried to duplicate this to some extent here.