Drawing Martin and Paul: June 26th and 28th 2012

Here are 14 drawings from two sessions of life-drawing. 

The first seven are with a new model, Martin, at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley. The final seven are with the model Paul, at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud.

Firstly two warm up 'quickies'. Nothing special about these. Charcoal on A2 cartridge paper.

The next three continue with my two handed approach. I am using 5mm willow charcoal sticks in both hands and attempting to equalise the contribution that each makes to the mark making. I am moving the two sticks around the paper close together and trying not to allow my usual right hand to dominate the drawing process.

The next two drawings are from the start of the afternoon session in which the model moved through a number of repeated poses, holding each for a few minutes.

Here again is another two handed drawing.
In order to explore through the drawing process the form and character of the right side of the body, and to give emphasis to this, I have utilised a 'soft' or 'lost' edge approach to the left side of the body.

Now to Extreme Poses, and the model Paul is up in the ropes.
The evening before, I looked through my recent work and there emerged an idea that I might try to engage with the boundary between 'a realistic representation' of the human form and an 'abstract interpretation'. In other words, when does a drawing become a set of  'interesting' marks which give no hint of a human form to the beholder?
Well, I did start to address this issue.
In the next two drawings I selected what I considered to be key points of focus. I made no connecting marks (lines) to link these points of focus together to represent a recognisable human form. I am leaving it up to the beholder to make the connections and to 'see' the human form.
Conclusion: I did not quite arrive at the boundary because the pose is discernable in both drawings.

I would say that the next drawing is less abstract than the two previous ones, particularly as some tonal treatment and texture is introduced.

The next reverts back to a 'representational' and 'realistic' mode.

In a further attempt to address the abstract/realism boundary I placed my next drawing on a recycled work from about three years ago (a female model lying on her back, in charcoal, which I had rubbed back). Again I selected points in the current pose which to emphasise.
Conclusion: With close inspection the two forms can be identified. However I believe the overall first impression is of an abstract composition. But the question is: On this occasion is the abstract quality introduced through a 'confusion' of one drawing upon another, rather than by my 'subjective' selection of what to draw and through the mark making technique employed?
  

At the end of the day Paul Fowler encouraged Paul the model to use a harness to suspend in three different positions. Each was held for about fine minutes at the most. On the left he hangs upside down with his hands touching the floor. Upper right he is more or less in a 'seated' position and in the third pose he is supported around the waist with his head and shoulders leaning down towards the floor.  

'beyond the act of drawing an object'

I sense that there is beginning to emerge, within myself, a sense of ownership of my life-drawing. Here is what I mean by this:  

• I no longer feel I am drawing an object.
• I no longer feel I am a separate entity from that 'person' who I am representing on my paper.
• I no longer 'consciously' battle with issues of composition, fitting it on the paper, and proportion, and I am oblivious to any attempt to accurately portray the model.
• If a preoccupation prevails it is 'mark-making'. I feel I want to make interesting marks. And I have discovered that charcoal has no bounds. It is infinitely explorable.
• Above all I am beginning to surprise myself by creating the unplanned and the unanticipated.
• I also feel that my work is beginning to have an identity which is particular and peculiar to me, although my researches find parallels from whom I can both draw inspiration but also further my own identity through a process of comparative analysis.  

I have entitled this posting 'beyond the act of drawing an object' and have already hinted of the current transformation in my life-drawing. 

For a few days now I have been drawing with both hands, simultaneously. 

It almost seems now to be the natural way to draw. 

Making marks through my left hand has challenged the life long conventions and sensations of drawing through my (usual) right hand. When I make marks through my left hand my right hand responds to the act of mark making in a different way from the usual  [I am still attempting to understand what is happening]. But I have concluded that by using both hands my 'whole self ' has entered the life drawing process and that I have become much more emotionally/intellectually and physically/tactily involved. In other words using both hands at once I am not only utilising both sides of my body but I am bringing into the process both sides of my brain. The implications of this I will be researching soon.

All drawings in this posting are on A2 cartridge paper. I am finding a significant benefit in using the smaller A2.

So here are 9 drawings from Tuesday June 19th at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley with the model Carol. 

    

The first three are warm-up quickies (fairly conventional, and I am not excited by them).

Then three drawings which build upon the two small 5 minute drawings from last week. I am attempting to minimise the time spent on each and concentrate on tonal contrasts. Each is drawn from a different position in the studio, and for the third I lowered my easel and sat down.

I like these very much. They seem to extract the essence of the pose, and I'm excited by the character of the mark-making

Then three more drawings of the same pose, from different positions and elevations.

For the last one above I felt a strong need to move away from charcoal (sometimes I feel I have exhausted the potential of a particular approach for the time being), and used the double pen technique with some added graphite stick to enhance the darker tonal areas.


Now to Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, with Dave high in the ropes. Whereas the nine drawings above were the output over the morning and afternoon sessions (6 hours with breaks) here my nine drawings were the output from the three hour morning session, with breaks and a long coffee chat.

All nine are drawn with both hands being used to make marks simultaneously. They are posted in the order they were drawn.

Mark Making: May into June 2012

The following 21 drawings are from 5 sessions of life drawing classes from May 24th to June 14th 2012. 

Upon reflection I believe they indicate a significant stage in the evolution of my pre-occupation with mark-making. 

I am uncertain as to why I have this pre-occupation. Yet I am fascinated by mark-making. It seems to me (at this moment in my life-drawing journey) to be a magnate of attention. I feel I can easily deal with composition, I can capture gesture, and I have become familiar with the medium of charcoal and how to manipulate its potential. 

So, it is:

how marks are made on the paper to represent the dialogue between artist and model, 

how marks are made on the paper to indicate the artist's perception of the form, 

how marks are made on the paper as a result of the emotive response of the artist to the model, 

how marks are made on paper to acknowledge the effort put in by the model in creating a particular pose, how marks are made on paper to take forward the exploration, the challenge, the uncertainty, and the potential of life-drawing, and 

how marks emerge on the paper in exploring the potential of the medium.

 Firstly, three poses of Robin high in the ropes at Extreme Poses in Paul Fowler's studio at Pegasus Art in Stroud. Charcoal on A1 cartridge paper.

Next, a fourth pose which turned out to be a real challenge. I attacked this many times on the same sheet of paper using charcoal and pencil, erasing and rubbing with fingers. This could turn out to be one of my most cherished pieces of work.

Here are two studies of Angela at Angela Palmer's studio in Brockweir in the Wye Valley. For me they illustrate techniques from my past. The first uses charcoal in a bold and confident way, emphasising tonal variation. The second incorporates pencil techniques and emphasises the use of cross-hatching to achieve tonal variation.

Now we go back to Extreme Poses with Robin in the ropes. A thin willow charcoal stick in my left hand and an HB pencil in my right hand - drawing simultaneously.

Below I introduce some tonal touches with a thick 9B graphite stick.

Here I am avoiding drawing lines and concentrating solely on tonal blocks with the 9B graphite stick and some charcoal to give emphasis. I do like the result: the feet come to the fore and the buttock disappears with the use of the soft-edge.

Here we are with Carol on the couch in Brockweir, and |I have a pencil in my right hand (my usual hand) and a stick of charcoal in my left hand. I attempt to use then simultaneously, but using the charcoal to give an emphasis to a journey up through the pose linking the deeper tones.

The above drawing was one of two short 10 minute poses at the start of the session which I placed on one A1 sheet of cartridge paper.

This is the main pose of the day. I positioned myself, standing at my easel, near the head of the model. I have  a charcoal stick in each hand. The one in my left hand (not my usual hand) tends to outline the main elements of the form, whilst the one in my right hand is short and thick and allows me to (more heavily) home in on the dark tone points of emphasis.

I felt I had achieved something of a breakthrough with the previous drawing in terms of mark making, and so as a distraction I moved my easel and did a more conventional charcoal drawing.

Then, back to a very similar position, and to the pursuit of holding a stick of charcoal in each hand and drawing with them simultaneously, but exploring how each can concentrate on and so emphasising different aspects of the pose.

We are now back with Robin at Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud.
Here I am beginning to realise the potential of the two handed approach to drawing.
We are in the infancy of this approach.
It has an amazing potential!

Here is a quick analysis before you look at these final drawings:
1. I draw with both hands at the same time.
2. Sometimes I have an identical charcoal stick in each hand.
3. Sometimes I contrast with charcoal in one hand and a pencil in the other.
4. My usual and dominant side is my right side, and it is with this I make firm and positive marks.
5. When I have a charcoal stick in my left hand I use it gently and sensitively so as not to break it, and this quality is transferred to the right hand, with correspondingly different marks with the right hand.

During the morning, Paul Fowler positioned the model high in the ropes, asked us to place ourselves beneath the model, either seated on the floor or on chairs, looking up, and gave us each a small piece of card. 

Here are my two responses.

Each incorporates lines drawn with the left and the right hand (whilst the other hand is holding the card up in the air).

Finally: And now for something different!
This may be a breakthrough.
For most of the drawings in this posting I have experimented with drawing simultaneously with both hands. Each has held a different medium, usually a contrasting charcoal and a pencil.
Here below I have a thin willow charcoal in each hand, but what is more significant is that I am attempting to equally balance the use of each, which means that I am attempting to balance the pressure on the paper and therefore the intensity and character of the mark from each.

This is something very new in my life-drawing journey.
Can't wait for the next developments.