Drawing Paul on June 27th

Drawing Damaris on June 13th

Drawing Penny on June 11th

To start with two 5 minute poses. Both hands with an HB pencil in each to get the basic form and then some heavier lines with my usual hand.

All drawing in this posting are on A1 220gsm cartridge paper.

 

I started this next drawing with a fine-liner pen in each hand but somehow didn't really achieve anything I liked. I was uncertain about how to continue with the principal line directions, in other words how to introduce a consistency in the mark making. So I abandoned it after about 40 minutes or so with the option of returning to it later in the day. This I did, after I had completed the pencil drawing which follows.

The outcome of my deliberations concerning mark making, after completing this drawing is that it is possible to include a variety of 'directional' mark making, i.e. some squiggly lines, some contour lines, and some lines which are more descriptive, as in the drawing of the hair.

 

So here below is the pencil drawing.

I started with a very few light lines just to locate the main elements of the pose on the paper, and then decided to go all out for a singular diagonal hatching technique. I simply built blocks of hatching, lightly at first, then sometimes one on top of another and some applying heavier pencil marks. As this was taking place the three-dimensional form arose from the paper. The hand in the foreground received extra attention both to bring it forward and perhaps to act as a focus in the composition. 

 

Then after lunch I wanted to create for myself more of a challenge in terms of mental gymnastics (as opposed to improving my draughting skills). So I decided I would juxtapose two opposing views of the pose, in some way, and as there was a vacant space in the studio immediately opposite my morning position, it became attractive to include the two heads and then to see what would happen with the meet of the two forms. I had no idea at all how the two would come together and how the lines would relate and how any conflicts and contradictions might be resolved.  The legs, which were not included in the two morning drawings somehow entered the composition. The other new and important element for the composition is the appearance of the left arm, which of course was hidden previously.

 

The meeting of the two poses did not present me with any difficulty at all. Continuity and flow between the two just happened in a landscape of four breasts, two tummies and the high peaks of the lower rib cages. All of this appears suspended within a hammock suggested by the lines of the legs, and the whole composition is then anchored by the forward projecting left arm.

REFLECTION

I have touched on an approach to life-drawing on a few occasions over the past eighteen months which attempts a composition by withdrawing from the usual and standard, singular, and uni-directional drawing of a pose to one which juxtaposes two or more drawings in a somewhat challenging way,  i.e. attempting to study a pose from two viewpoints at the same time (as above); overlapping one or more drawings; placing two poses together to suggest a narrative; re-creating a new composition from dismembered 'body parts'.

I need to think some more about this approach, and perhaps bring together in a posting the evidence. In the meantime, I do have real need and desire to, every-so-often, engage with something different to standing at my easel in front of a model and doing a drawing. But, of course, it is never as simple as that. Ever!

Satisfied with life-drawing? Unquestionably!

This is how I feel right now.

This is how I have been feeling for the past few weeks.

And it is because the way I am engaging with life drawing, my experiencing of the process, and the nature of the drawings themselves, are all coming from within myself.

But I do seek stimulation. And I do find it.

Whenever something different emerges in my life-drawing I search the Internet for connections. And I build a library of images from the work of artists.

I would love to spend time to place alongside some of these discoveries with the events that have taken place in my own life-drawing in a more formal manner.

On my tablet I have two stores: one is a record of my own drawings, the other is a collection of the drawings of artists which I have found which I can relate to my work.

How do I utilise this resource?

I frequently look through both stores and think about the connections.

I nearly always do this the evening before a life-drawing day.

This activity immerses me back into life-drawing, after a day of land-husbandry, or a day of grand-children, or a day of something else. 

I life-draw regularly on a Tuesday and a Thursday. And that is it. 

Drawing Paul on June 6th

After two sessions with a clothed Abigail reclining in a chair I am back at Extreme Poses with Paul taking up five different poses suspended in the straps and ropes. About 25 minutes each pose. I am really enjoying engaging with the dynamics of a selected part of the pose, and switching between fine-liner pens and pencils used in a variety of combinations. Also switching between drawing with both hands and one hand.
All are on A1 220gsm cartridge paper.

Drawing Abigail on June 4th: following on from last Thursday