Classes, classes, classes!!!

I started giving lessons again today (I work as an English teacher) and it's the one thing I love as much as creating. I get such a thrill of helping someone learn English and the great satisfaction they have when they learn a new language. To top the day off I took my first art lesson of the year in the afternoon, this year is all about drawing the human figure and faces; and as you can see from my poor ATC above I need BIG help when it comes to this. The ATC above is supposed to be my rendition of Luna Lovegood- I used watercolors, acryllic metallic paints, black ink, and white ink. This one is for Melanie over at AFA, she is one AWESOME artist, you can visit her blog here.
Back to my art classes, I have them scheduled for Mondays 2-6 and it was a total surprise when I showed up today because it turns out we get to work with a live model. I have never tried human figure drawing before, not to mention with a live model! but it was a really nice experience. The first part of the class was spent by doing a series of exercises where she changed poses every 5 or 7 minutes...for the first ones I was freaking out a bit because of the time limit, but it turns out that when you are just trying to get the basic body shapes where they belong 5 minutes is a long time.
Here are the first poses, my personal favorite is the one where she is lying on her side -although she looks way chubby, I think I kind of over did the curves a bit.This one has a sketch of my teacher on the right - he was showing me the whole 8 heads of proportion rule.

This one is the last one of the session, she held the pose for 30 minutes, she was sort of slumped over a chair with her legs stretched out towards me -which was a whole load of trouble I might add- Oh, and let's not get into the whole hand/feet issue; it was my first class after all ; )
I'd love to hear some feedback from you, I'm WAY out of my comfort zone with this topic but I'm really interested in learning from this.

Now, for some awesome classes YOU can take on line! A group of extraordinary artists -Annie Melione, Dana Driscoll, Tracie Rozario and Sal Scheibe- are just getting ready to launch a Whimsy Art Workshop:
"The workshop is designed to help artists who are seeking to improve their artistic skills or working to develop a unique style. The workshop is designed for the novice, so it’s not necessary that you know anything about drawing, color, or composition. We will cover all of the basics and some advanced techniques and then help you to find your own, unique style of whimsical art. Our approach to learning about drawing is light-hearted and fun and filled with exercises and inspiration to help you grow as an artist." Read more about it here.