Drawing Joanne on 22/10/2011

The only other time that I was with Joanne back in Summer School at Arts Alive in Crickhowell, in Powys, I really struggled with her slender form. On that occasion, I admit, I was completely thrown out of my usual confident approach to drawing.

Here, yet again, I struggled.

In this first drawing I treated the approach as an exercise in responding to the angles and planes as they moved upwards from the feet through the body. Whilst this gave me an insight into the basic form before me it didn't convey anything of the elegance, the flow and her slimness which characterised the pose, and which I wanted to work with in making the drawing. So, if doing a straight drawing did not work then how about adding an ingredient which might deliver the goal. I decided to utilise an approach which I have been recently developing and which I have described in my previous 3 or 4 postings (fundamentally, it is about recycling old drawings but within a considered and selective set of criteria). Here, I have selected an old drawing of a model who contrasts significantly from Joanne. This contrast sets up a dialectic which I believe has aided my desire to do justice to the elegance, flow and slimness of Joanne. And also, in retrospect, conversely celebrates the wholesome fullness of the original model.

For me it has worked! The contrast is obvious: the larger, ample form of the model with her back to me, has encouraged me to juxtapose the length of Joanne's pose around it, and so to do justice to Joanne's elegance. I am also pleased with the composition on the paper which I feel has been designed. This I feel is one of those watershed moments when a number of variables come together, each of which has been engaged with individually, in different drawings, in the past.

Technical point re the above drawing: the original is a quick pastel drawing on A1 cartridge paper. I then brushed it with clear gesso which picked up and spread the original pastel marks. During the drawing of Joanne in red pastel, I did place additional blue pastel on the former 'body' to provide a tonal contrast. I also utilised a 'lost edge' approach to Joanne's right side, which I now realise is echoed in the treatment to the right side of the original model. This 'lost' or 'soft' edge technique should draw the attention of the beholder to the vertical flow up through the centre of the drawing as the two forms interplay within the composition. The idea that the eye of the beholder can be taken on a journey through the drawing is an objective worth developing and in fact is something which I have engaged with before.

Then Joanne rested on a chaise longue for a second session, for which I used charcoal on a clear gesso treated A1 cartridge paper.

Drawing Paul on 20/10/2011

Yes, it's Paul again, up in the ropes at Extreme Poses at Stroud, but this time for three half hour poses in which I am using sheets of A1 re-cycled paper from earlier sessions of some weeks ago. The previous evening I sorted out some of my stack of life-drawings and those which I decided were not worth keeping I applied a coating of clear gesso which not only sealed-in the original drawing but provided a new surface which is so very conducive to accepting and holding charcoal. For the second sheet I added a few drops of acrylic flame red ink to the clear gesso.

As I indicated in my last posting, in this approach of placing one drawing upon another it will take time for the new issues to emerge and be recognised and then analysed so that they can be built upon and developed.

A design issue which is immediately apparent is to do with the relationship or juxtapositioning of the two figures.

Another issue which has become obvious to address is how to handle the area of overlap of the two bodies.

The three examples which follow begin to suggest:

a) the second drawing can be placed on top of the first (or placed behind it which might be more difficult),

b) the area of overlap is given a degree of transparency, so that indications of both figures are given, and

c) the two figures are drawn with a similar weight of line and mark, and the two bodies are allowed to intertwine to some degree. These three alternatives are suggested in turn by the three drawings below.

At the end of the session Paul spread himself, face down, between a number of ropes and hovered in the air. He just about held the pose for 15 minutes. We were all working flat-out to capture this amazing pose. I used willow charcoal on a very smooth white A1 cartridge paper. A number of layers of marks were made, each time they were lightly brushed which softened the impact of the charcoal mark. I love the result.

Drawing Angela on 18/10/2011

Here we are continuing with the same pose from last Tuesday and again I am experimenting with various techniques.

1. Charcoal on clear gesso treated A1 cartridge paper. Two or three layers of charcoal are each brushed back until the final marks are made.

2. Same as 1 above but a much stronger attack with the charcoal and some white pastel highlights are added.

3. A fairly quick A2 fine technical pen drawing. Learnt nothing from this one.

4. And finally a conte pencil and pastel drawing juxtaposed against a graphite pencil drawing of a different model from some weeks ago. I had previously applied a clear gesso treatment to the earlier drawing.

I am quite excited with the apparent potential of juxtaposing two poses together. I find that a key aspect in this approach is to have available a number of earlier completed drawings from which I can select a pose which has a relationship with the one before me. At this time I believe the relationship can take many forms and I will be exploring how this is a design issue over the coming weeks. The above is almost the first attempt, and there were two components to this design: a) opposing faces, and b) placing the second pose over the first to allow sufficient areas of the first pose to provide a backcloth, which I then emphasised with a grey pastel. I feel this is another step along the path of my life-drawing journey the outcome of which cannot be anticipated.

Drawing Angela on October 11 & 13, 2011

The first 4 drawings are of Angela the model, seated at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley on Tuesday. The following 5 then sees Angela up in the ropes at Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' at Pegasus Art in Stroud.

All are A1 drawings.

Nos 1: charcoal on smooth cartridge paper. The initial drawing is pushed back with a brush, then a final set of lines define the figure.

Nos 2: charcoal on clear gesso treated cartridge paper.

Nos 3: pastel, on beige newsprint.

Nos 4: a ten minute charcoal on gesso at the end of the day.

Now to Thursday.

Nos 5: pastel. The paper is treated with clear gesso with a touch of acrylic paint and pieces of tissue paper painted on to the surface with the gesso (these treatments are prepared the night before and allowed to dry overnight).

Nos 6: charcoal on clear gesso treated cartridge paper.

Nos 7: a very quick exercise with minimal lines. We were supposed to use only 5 lines.

Nos 8: for this I used an HB pencil with blue pastel, but on a drawing of Angela from some months ago which I had over-painted with clear gesso and a touch of acrylic colour.

Nos 9: charcoal, and again using an earlier drawing of Angela treated the same as Nos 8.

For me, a very satisfying week in which some new experimentation took me along a slightly different path in my life-drawing journey.

Drawing Paul on 06.10.2011

Today I am continuing with my more abstract approach as introduced in my previous posting.

I am using pastel, charcoal and pencil on A1 smooth white cartridge paper.