Drawing Dorothy on 25/03/10

I seem to be back enjoying charcoal again! So, above are the eight 10/20 minute drawings completed throughout the day. Below, I will comment on some of them.

These two I really like. I feel I have captured the poise of the model in each pose. I am particularly pleased with the way I have drawn the heads/faces: above, the suggestion of the highlight on the cheek and jaw, and below the calmness and serenity of the expression and the relaxed angle of the head. In the past I have had a tendency to avoid the head and particularly any attempt to capture a facial expression.

In the two drawings below I am experimenting with marks. Just how can the charcoal be applied to the paper to exploit and capture the forms and tones of the body in a fairly bold and explicit way. Also, how can the energy of the artist's activity that abounds in the process of engaging with the human form be expressed in the drawing itself.

Then I did two studies of the back of the model. Whilst again being interested in the marks on the paper I suppose a principal pre-occupation from this angle is to capture the subtle twisting of the spine and how different parts of the body orchestrate themsleves along this central structural channel.

At the end of the day I felt a need to get into colour. This is an A1 pastel drawing which started with a selected set of yellow, orange, reds and browns. I added a touch of light blues with a little light green. Finally, and very quickly, I energetically emphasised the deep dark tones with a 'black' pastel used on its edge. This was indeed done very quickly and instantly transformed the drawing

Drawing Ocean on 23/03/10

I started this pastel drawing last week (above) and as we had the same model with the same pose for most of the day I decided to do further work on it, and below is the completed drawing. In using a good pastel paper I was able to build up in places a number of layers of pastel and complete the drawing with highlights and shadow tones upon what was already there. We were all amazed how Ocean was able to maintain this pose for such a long time with her legs in this position.

At the end of the day I repositioned myself in the studio and produced this fairly quick pastel drawing of the same pose (below). The placing of the figure on the paper was inspired by the positioning of the vertical lamp support in front of the model. I decided to draw that part of the model I could see to the left of the vertical lamp support.

Drawing Dorothy on 18/03/2010

Drawing Ocean on 16/03/2010

SOLD! SOLD! SOLD! (the following drawings have been sold)

This somewhat abstract drawing is one of my favourites. So I was so pleased when a fellow life drawer expressed her love for it and she suggested that (if our respective works did not find a buyer) we swop exhibits which we both had on display at a local exhibition. I had already said to her that I had fallen in love with her drawing. I am able therefore to log this as my fourth sale. We have now exchanged drawings and I will ask her whether I can display her work on a future posting on my blog. Here are the details:

FEMALE NUDE: HANDS ON KNEES (above)
32cm/45cm, conte crayon on light grey textured paper (sold for £190)
Exhibited at 'LIFE as we see it' Exhibition at The Garden Room, Taurus Crafts, Lydney, Gloucestershire, UK.

CROUCHING FEMALE NUDE
[this image may be viewed on my posting of Friday February 5th 2010, TITLE: 'Life Drawing 04/02/10 Nos1'. The model is Marcia and the drawing uses blue and purple conte crayon and features the 'iconoc' female bottom]
32cm/45cm, conte crayon on light grey textured paper (sold for £150)
Exhibited at 'LIFE as we see it' Exhibition at The Garden Room, Taurus Crafts, Lydney, Gloucestershire, UK. [this exhibition of over 70 pieces from artists who attend Angela Palmer's life drawing classes at Mackenzie Hall, Brockweir, Wye Valley is open daily until March 28th 2010. Tel: 01594844841]

RECLINING FEMALE NUDE 48 (above)
60cm/30cm, charcoal on white cartridge (sold for £65)
Exhibited at 'Roots at The Forester' gallery, Cinderford, Gloucestershire, UK, in Oct/Nov 2009.


FEMALE NUDE HANDS ON HIPS (above)
30cm/60cm, charcoal on white cartridge (sold for £65)
Exhibited at 'Roots at The Forester' gallery, Cinderford, Gloucestershire, UK, in Oct/Nov 2009.

Drawing Penny on 11/03/10

This was not a good day for me with the longer poses so I am posting three 10/15 minute quickies. In the two charcoal drawings I am concentrating on using a variety of techniques: a quick outline of the basic form rubbed down; toned areas smoothed with either the finger or a tissue; quick, sharp, intense dark tones but kept to a minimum; and finally, some use of an eraser (on the reclining figure) for the highlights.

Penny kneeling and stretching her arms over her head required a very quick response: perhaps 5 minutes. The advantage of my above average height allowed me to view and hence to capture the unusual sight of the upper surface of her right buttock peeping from around her back.

Drawing Dorothy on 09/03/10

I love these quick 10 minute poses. Here Dorothy is curled up and I have tried to use three tones including the paper as highlights, and have also concentrated on making a range of interesting marks with the charcoal.

Dorothy climbed up a ladder for a couple of poses which helped me to captivate her elegant tall form (10 minutes each).

A simple side view, avoiding head and feet in order to celebrate her beauty and elegance (10 minutes).

The challenge below is in the perspective: just how much of the upper body can one see beyond the hip? I've attempted this pose so many times now that I have become rather complacent when approachiing it. Hence this is not a particularly good piece of draughtsmansip.

Here below are three studies of the same frontal pose using different media.

Firstly, a quick charcoal drawing exploring variations in tone which was lifted by my decision to apply a blue ink background to the paper.

Secondly, a pastel drawing to which I then applied some additional marks with a brush dipped in water. As the brush was drawn across the paper it seemed to pick up pastel pigments in rather a random and unexpected sequence which resulted in some addional interesting marks. This is the first time I have used pastel with water and I see lots of potential in this technique.

Thirdly, conte crayon on a toned paper which resulted in a more subtle presentation than the previous two drawings

Drawing Penny on 04/03/10

Two of the 10 to 15 minute poses from the day. The upper one is on white cartridge and uses conte crayon, which when lightly drawn across the paper allows a transparency in the colour, but when pressure is applied a denser colour results. The second uses soft pastels and a heavily textured white paper, which again results in a transparency as the paper's texture shows through. (I must find out what this paper it is called as I am really enjoying the quality).

A longer drawing in which the pose from last week was continued so I moved across the studio to deal with the issue of perspective from the head end. I firstly completed a drawing of the whole body (not shown) but during its execution became fascinated by the issue of the relative sizes of the head, breasts and stomach in the perspective, so I then focussed on these. As on 02/03/10 the strength and colour of the background was important to help lift the figure from the paper. As with most of my drawings done in life classes this one is far from complete, and I have only laid the foundations of the colours to the body in what I believe is referred to as 'the underpainting'.

An interesting point is illustrated by today's studies. Drawings can have different functions. The first two above are basically gesture drawings which aim to capture the 'attitude' of the figure, and in my case also deal with my continuing exploration of the relationship between colour and tone (or value as it is called in North America). However, I am now convinced, that when working on a longer pose, of the importance of working on the backgound in parallel with the figure. There are lots of reasons why this should be done which I may reflect upon in a future posting.

Drawing Dorothy on 02/03/10

As usual we started both the morning and afternoon sessions with 10 minute poses. Some days these quick drawings don't get anywhere. This was one of those days. However, I post this one not only because I love the challenge of the 'triangulated' pose, but I like the outcome of an interesting process: very quick structure lines were sketched across the paper, followed by quick blocks of 'pink' highlights, followed by 'green' on the tone darker than the paper, followed by 'dark brown' deep shadow tones. Finally, I defined each part of the figure with quick 'confident' red lines. I have tended to avoid using an 'outline' as I have considered it more skillful and indeed more accurate to represent a figure as a series of planes which meet and are differentiated from each other by their colour and tone. In other words lines don't actually exist. [I stopped drawing well before the 10 minutes was up]

This was the main drawing of the day. Although there is a touch of blue and green I tried again (as last week) to experiment with the principle of analogous colours: i.e. a limited palette of yellows, oranges, reds, purples. The paper is a smooth newsprint so it was impossible to successfully layer colours over each other. I think the introduction of the green backgound as a complementary colour to the warm oranges/reds of the highlighted side of the body causes the figure to stand out, and the warm colours to glow.