Drawing Paul on April 26 2012

Driving from Wales, over the border into England and the Severn estuary, to do life-drawing at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses studio at Pegasus Art in Stroud is becoming a real highlight in my life-drawing journey. Each session seems to present something new to add to the vocabulary of concepts and techniques which contribute to the expansion, the development, the 'opening-up' of this wonderful world of drawing the human body.

So what happened today?

Paul asked that we look beyond the model and take on the model in its context. Yes (usually) we do focus on the model as 'the object'. What if the object is the space within which the model presides? So here is my drawing of the space as object. You will see: easels, radiators, ropes, shelves, etc., and the model suspended high up in the ropes. A composition evolved during the making of the drawing in that lines of easels and planes of walls began to converge and help draw the eye towards the model. But I don't believe that it was this which was significant.

I concluded that what was different was 'what I was experiencing' in producing the drawing, and not the drawing itself. What was different was my 'perception of the model'.  The body seemed to me to float in space much more. It seemed lighter and completely detached from any force of gravity. It seemed to have lightness and space around it but of which it was part.
Well, I've tried to explain my experience. So lets see what emerges both today and in the near future.

The question which should be asked is this: Are the drawings you see below any different from before?  My answer is: I don't think they are, but the experience of drawing them was different! Its about a change in perception. Its about a change in the psychology of making a drawing.

So, I won't say any more. Here are the drawings. Nothing new in technique or the drawing medium, but maybe something has changed. And that something is most likely to be within myself, and within the way I will approach and engage with drawing the human body in the future.

Drawing Tracey on April 24 2012

This is the second Tuesday with our new model, Tracey, at Angela Palmer's studio at Brockweir in the Wye Valley. The main seated pose is the same as last week, and we started with two 10 minute gestures. 

I enjoyed drawing these on the same A1 cartridge paper, and juxtaposing them. The dancing relationship which resulted is very pleasing. Angela has installed in her studio some ropes fixed to the ceiling and anchored to the floor. This allows the model to create poses which quite different to the more usual seated, lying or standing pose.

Here I use fineliner pen and charcoal.

I located myself in the same position in the studio as last week, but decided to lower my easel and sit, so this time I was not looking down on her shoulder and into her lap but as she was sitting on a high stool I looked upwards slightly towards her head. I started with the double pen and blended in some charcoal for the darker tone areas.

Below is my main drawing for the morning, so probably about an hour was spent on this. I again used the double fineliner pen technique. For the first time I was really able to explore the potential of concentrated pen work, and I like the result.

Now it is after lunchtime and again two more quick poses, juxtaposed.

For the main drawing of the afternoon I moved my easel, and resumed my usual standing position, and from my great height I again looked down towards the model.
I really wanted to capture her very sculptural form and in particular the strength of her thighs and the advancing sculptural quality of her knees.
Tonal contrasts were also a principal preoccupation in developing this drawing.

I enjoy charcoal. And although I am becoming fascinated with the potential of the fineliner pen, and with the potential of the finliner pen in combination with charcoal, I think I will always return to the use of charcoal alone, but constantly exploring the very tactile uses of this medium. By 'tactile' I am referring to the many ways in which charcoal can be manipulated: with the finger, with a brush, with a piece of rolled tissue, with an eraser, etc.

Drawing Angela on April 19 2012

I described in my last posting how I had gone to the life drawing class with a plan (with the expectation that I would progress into a new way of working), the plan didn't work, and I tended to revert back into a comfort zone of known techniques. So two days later it was with a tremendous relief and extreme excitement that the totally unexpected suggestion, made by our tutor Paul Fowler at Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, propelled me into a new experience of drawing, of mark making and of output. Right at the start of the morning he asked us to tape together two pencils, perhaps an HB and a 4B, and to draw making two parallel lines of marks. Immediately I realised I was creating a type of drawing and a character of mark making which I had been attempting in the past, but more significantly it strongly related to my (failed) plan of two days ago. Quite a coincidence!. The result using pencils is the first drawing below.

For the second drawing I taped together two fineliner pens, 0.3mm and 0.8mm. The beauty of this method is that twice as many marks are made, and twice as many lines are drawn. There is introduced an increased intensity to the drawing making process. The two pens can make marks at the same time or alternatively one pen can be used then a very quick change can be made to the other, and back again as different thicknesses of line are required.

Below I taped together two Derwent tinted charcoal pencils ('sand' and 'natural') and because of their marked difference both in colour and tonal value I felt it more appropriate to use them alternately moving from dark to light as required rather than both together (if you see what I mean).

Finally I taped together a 0.8mm fineliner pen and a thick graphite stick, and again felt the best way to utilise their potential was to use them alternately as required.
Two drawings of the same pose, the first on A1 and the second on A2.

I'm very grateful for Paul's innovative proposal. I can see it holds great promise and I shall be experimenting with this approach again.

Drawing Tracey on April 17 2012

Back to life classes after the Easter break - fantastic! 

Seed planting, ground digging, fencing, grandchildren staying, walks and generally enjoying the amazingly hot weather, have all filled the space available. 

I prepared myself for the next steps in my life drawing journey by exploring the approach laid out by Kimon Nicolaides in his book 'The Natural Way to Draw'. So I went into this first day back with a plan. And it didn't work. I won't go in to the plan I had developed, and won't say why I think it didn't work. But this experience confirmed  something which I had already become fairly convinced about, and this is - the artist will respond to the situation, i.e. the ambiance of the studio, the personality and pose(s) of the model, the nature of the dialogue which is sparked off between the artist and the model as soon as the artist is presented with the pose.

The day's pieces did not break new ground. Upon reflection they tend to summarise where I was before the Easter break, if not further back in time.

To start with, three 5 minute gesture drawings in pencil and charcoal on an A1 sheet of cartridge paper.

Then on to the main pose, which we will also have next Tuesday as well.

I was positioned close to the model and was looking down upon her shoulder and lap. I simply felt I wanted to explore this pose in three different ways: fineliner pen, charcoal and then pastel. All are on A1 cartridge paper. Something like 20 minutes each.

After lunch we had three quick gesture poses. The third drawing was a disaster, but in the first I did manage to relate the seated leaning-back pose with the kneeling pose in a single drawing, and was very pleased with this relationship and the overall composition.

Finally, I moved across the studio and addressed the main pose from the back. The drawing started off using a fineliner pen but this did not capture anything of the quality of the figure and the form. So I powered in with my thick charcoal stick, rubbed the marks down with a pointed piece of rolled toilet paper, then added more charcoal which I tended to blend into the composition with my finger. The curvature and fullness of the form gradually emerged as I developed this technique.

Drawing Robin on March 29th 2012

This was a good day for me at Extreme Poses run by Paul Fowler at Pegasus Art in Stroud. 

I feel my mark making was clear and distinctive and I managed to capture the 'gesture' of each pose. 

I stopped each drawing well before I reached the end (this is a discipline I am cultivating). Knowing when to stop is so important. Continuing beyond a certain point allows one to ruin a drawing! Drawings 1, 2 and 4, below were stopped after about 10 minutes. 

All use willow charcoal on cartridge paper with some using additional 0.8mm fineliner pen.