Getting into 'drawing' as a 'verb'

After today's life-drawing experiences, at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, I have had my awareness of, and my insight into, the concept of 'Drawing is a verb' raised significantly.  

This is where I think I am at the moment:

• drawing with both hands simultaneously brings my whole body and my whole mind into the process
• I feel I have entered the space between myself and the model: I am no longer (as an artist) drawing the model (as a distant and separate object)
• using my unusual left hand (which I have to think about) causes me to also think about how I am using my usual right hand: I am relearning how to draw with my right hand, so I am now beginning to draw differently with it
• a drawing is no longer the goal, it is almost an incidental product from my immersion in the life-drawing process
• when a drawing is no longer a goal then a number of criteria for making and judging drawings are suspended, which deepens the involvement of the artist in the process

All these drawings use willow charcoal. The 3rd, 4th and 5th also incorporate a squared graphite stick to add some intermediate tone/shading. All except the middle one are on 300gsm cartridge paper. This is a delight to make marks on as it holds the charcoal so well.

The first two are 10 minute poses of Paul suspended with a pelvic harness and holding other ropes with his hands and bracing against other ropes with his feet. Approx A2.

Paul Fowler then asked us to include the next four 10 minute poses on one sheet. The third pose uses graphite sticks and the fourth two pencils. This is on an A1 sheet of 110gsm cartridge.

Here again are four 10 minute poses (I am sure you can work them out). A1 300gsm cartridge.

Finally two 10 minute poses. On the left suspended hanging up side down, and the is a sort of seated position.

"Where do they find these lines in Nature! For my part I see only forms that are lit up and forms that are not. There is only light and shadow"        Francisco de Goya

All marks if they are not dots then they are lines. However, I am trying to avoid lines which are outlines of the body and trying to compose tonal areas with my short, squiggly lines.

'Drawing is a verb' continued.

This posting quickly follows on from my last one of two days ago, and in the work below I am engaging with the same issues as previously described and discussed. 

The first two drawings use previously prepared 'recycled old drawings' which have been vigorously scrubbed with a cloth and then having a layer of charcoal powder rubbed on to the surface. 

I selected this particular old drawing because the ghost of the original figure coincided with the form of the left leg, torso and shoulders of the pose before me.  There then followed a minimal intervention on my part. I used an eraser to create the highlights, and a block of charcoal for the darker tones.

In this second work the ghost of the original pose is hardly in evidence. Again I limit my intervention to mark-making with an eraser and a stick of willow charcoal.

Having got the utilisation of recycled drawings out of my system [I don't think I'll be doing much more of this]   I felt a desperate need to return to the path in my life-drawing journey which had been emerging over recent weeks. So with a stick of willow charcoal in each hand I addressed the next pose.

And the next.
But this one was very difficult to engage with.
I became pre-occupied with the issue of the perspective of the left arm in relation to the head and the rest of the body.
I was quite happy that the marks on the paper were focusing on the left hand, the arm and the head, and letting the rest of the body being dealt with as a system of 'soft' or 'lost' edges.

Mid way through this morning's session Paul Fowler, our tutor at Extreme Poses, handed out small pieces of card, 20cm x 30cm, asked us to sit  beneath the suspended model, and to make a drawing which conveyed the feeling that "the model was suspended, above us, in the air".
I used a 6mm stick of willow charcoal in my left (unusual) hand, whilst holding the card in my right hand above my head between the model and myself.

'following the rain' July 3rd 2012

It poured with rain all day yesterday so I spent time in my barn (could this become my occasional studio?) sorting out some old drawings and preparing some drawing surfaces for today's session at Angela Palmer's class. The outcome deviates to some extent from my recent approaches, yet there are aspects of continuity.

We usually start the session with three short warm-up gesture poses. So in anticipation of this I brushed three  different colours of acrylic inks on a sheet of corrugated cardboard, each to be the location for one of the poses. I used a thin willow charcoal stick in my left hand and emphasised the darker tone areas with a chunk of charcoal in my right hand. Each was completed within two minutes.

 

This seated pose was a quickie from the start of the afternoon session.

My sorting of drawings resulted in my retaining an archive of about 10%, i.e. some 70 pieces of my output from the past 5 years of attending life-drawing classes. I also kept back about 50 of the rejected drawings, which were on good quality water-colour or pastel paper which could be re-used  The intention was to either use the backs, or to rub them back or gesso over them prior to reuse.

Here is one of the rejected drawings, which is of a seated female from May 2009 upon which I have superimposed today's two-handed charcoal drawing of Martin. This deliberate juxtaposing not only allows the opportunity to compare the very different approaches in drawing style and technique which have evolved over time, but also to provoke a relationship between the two figures.

I now recognise the most significant difference between my former and current approach to life-drawing. 
Formerly I drew the model as 'object'. Now, in the words of  Richard Serra, for me "Drawing is a verb". 
These four words succinctly sum up the approach I have been attempting to describe in my postings over the past few weeks.


I found the quote a few days ago when I came across an amazing blog created for students in Frank Hobb's Drawing Courses at Ohio Wesleyan University, for artists and anyone involved in the practice of drawing:

www.drawingowu.wordpress.com

 Please go to it, explore the links, and I would expect you will also discover it to be a wealth of stimulating and intriguing insights into the ways of making drawing.



The drawing below starts with an original 'multi-coloured' soft pastel drawing of the female figure from January 2010. Yesterday I vigorously rubbed it back with a cloth and discovered that the deep texture of the heavy water-colour paper retained much of the original pastel but with a reduced vibrancy. I decided to use this pose in conjunction with today's male seated pose to play with an idea of a relationship between the two figures.

I have only used my pastels on a very few occasions over the past twelve months or so, or maybe longer, due to my focus on charcoal particularly. So it became quite a challenge to revisit this earlier approach in which I used to search for colours in the body, but more specifically to interpret a tonal value in terms of a colour. I found it quite difficult to recall the criteria I had once developed to enable this interpretation and to recall the rules for placing colours adjacent one another. I recall I rarely 'blended' colours together. Having completed the male figure I then repeated the rubbing back treatment to this addition in an attempt to realise a coherent and consistent work.

Another technique not used by me in the past is the coating of a paper with charcoal powder and rubbing it into the surface. I prepared a number of these for future use. This time I used the back of an old drawing on a heavy white pastel paper but with a fairly smooth finish.  I then used charcoal and an eraser in producing the drawing. I cut the eraser to produce a sharp edge which I then attempted to use as a sharp drawing instrument.

The above drawing placed an emphasis on the arm both as a major component of the composition and in the attention it received in terms of drawing technique. This also was a feature in last weeks postings.

Below is another old drawing which I had played around with by rubbing it back with a cloth and applying clear gesso. I rather liked the effect but had no thoughts about re-using it.
However, I include it in this posting as it is another opportunity to do a comparative analysis between current and past work.