Arts Alive Summer School: Day 4

Arts Alive Summer School: Day 3

Most of the 13 or 14 participants have signed up for all the 5 days and clearly confidence is growing as the Summer School progresses.

 

Johanne is the model for today and we started with three short poses, about 7 minutes each. My drawings are with an HB pencil in each hand, and the light tonal treatment is achieved with a block of Derwent tinted charcoal lightly softened with a tissue.

 

 

Below is in fact my second drawing of the main pose. In pencil on A1 220gsm cartridge paper.

I attempted to explore Johannes rather Egon Shiele like qualities which I had completely failed to address at all in the first drawing which is then posted after the pencil drawing. 

 

 

Not sure what is happening here! I'm trying to bring the head forward and recess the tummy. As in the two drawings above the left foot has pre-occupied my attention and exaggeration of it is an attempt to draw it forward to give some sense of perspective to the whole.  

 

After lunch Tony returned to the main morning pose for about 30 minutes. I wanted to get on to something else so I just picked up two pencils, one in each hand, stood very close to my vertical A1 cartridge paper, and started to squiggle firstly with the knee and hands and then I moved upwards and became aware that I could be creating a vertical journey up through the pose and focusing on three key issues, namely; the forward tilting head, the recessed tummy, and the hands clasped together below the knee. I emphasised the forms with a 0.5 fine-liner pens in my usual hand. 

 

The main afternoon pose, for about one hour, saw Johanne laying in front of (and below) me. My first drawing in pencil with some tinted charcoal tonal work suggested to me that I had not done justice to my initial observation that this was an extremely elegant, graceful and flowing pose. Hence at the end of the day I superimposed a short standing pose which helped detract from my failure. I felt I had some aspect OK. For example, the length and dominance of the form from hip to toes. But I was very unhappy with the way i had composed the complexity of shapes beyond her left arm. 

 

I believe I rose to the challenge I set myself. I outlined the basic pose with, again, my two-handed pencil approach. Then with a thick squared graphite stick I confidently outlined the form.  

Arts Alive Summer School: Day 2

A 5 or 6 minute quickie to start with at the beginning of the day, finds Penny in one of her typical poses.

 

With an HB pencil in each hand this is what I have begun to refer to as a 'squiggle' drawing. It is as though I am searching the surface of the paper and gradually the form emerges, which I then further explore by getting ever closer to a representation of the pose.

 

In this next drawing I felt I wanted to dwell on two features which were her right foot and her left knee. I am drawing from the same position as in the above but here I have used my licence by foreshortening the right leg, bringing her breasts down to help emphasis the perspective, and also exaggerating the right foot. 

I believe I have, in this drawing, touched on an approach which really fascinates me. Clearly, I am not presenting a true representation of what is before me. I am 'contorting' aspects of the pose in order to record, communicate and convey my feelings at the time. I am drawing how I felt. I am drawing my feelings.  

 

Then on to something different. Although I have played with this idea before. This was the afternoon pose for which I firstly outlined the upper part of the body, and then I turned the paper through 90 degrees and repeated the pose, with an expectation that they would emerge together.

 

I have been looking at the work of Hans Bellmer. And I just wanted to try out something which might relate to his extraordinary juxtapositioning of different parts of the human anatomy.

 

Finally, on Day 2, we had a few minutes left so Tony asked Penny to pose for 3 or 4 minutes. It seemed appropriate that I bring out my charcoal which seems to have taken a back seat over the past few weeks.

Arts Alive Summer School: Day 1

This is the first of five days at Tony Tribe's Summer School at Arts Alive in Crickhowell. For the first two days the model is Penny who I have known for about five years since I started life-drawing.

My familiarity with Penny as a model raises a number of fascinating issues. On the one hand there is the relationship which has developed between model and artist. A dialogue of familiarity is established, which I believe breaks down any barriers, and allows the artist to go deeper into the life-drawing process and begin to engage with, and to express, 'feelings' in the drawing. The idea that an artist is drawing 'a feeling' as opposed to 'an object' suggests to me that a significant threshold has been crossed.

All my drawings are on A1 cartridge paper.

Here is the first day's output:

 

Below I am drawing with an HB pencil in each hand. Both are contributing equally to the process. The tonal treatment is with a block of Derwent tinted charcoal which has been softened by playing over it with a folded tissue. It may appear to you as a wash.

 

Next, after outlining the basic pose with a pencil in each hand I used a stick of compressed charcoal, lightly applied, to provide the darker tonal areas, and then I powered in with a stick of willow charcoal to help emphasise the basic form.

    

 

I wanted to divert my interests away from drawing the basic pose so here I have played with juxtaposing the upper part (head and torso) and the lower part (legs and feet), and then concentrating tonal work on the former by using charcoal powder applied with a brush and then softened by drawing a soft tissue across the surface.

Composition with quick 'gesture'drawings (see Reflections July 4th)

Exaggerated perspective/foreshortening (see Reflections July 4th)

3, 4 or 5 distinctive marks (see Reflections July 4th)

Anatomy/Rope Dynamic (see Reflections July 4th)

Body Parts (see Reflections July 4th)

Tonal mark-making: uni-directional cross-hatching (see Reflections July 4th)

Tonal mark-making: multi-directional hatching (see Reflections July 4th)

Presenting a rotated drawing (see Relections July 4th)

Pairing with a resultant innuendo (see Reflections July 4th)

Two views (see Reflections July 4th)

Drawing Robin on July 11th

All four drawings this morning were drawn with both hands. I used two pencils, or two pens, and in the first one of the foot I also used two tinted charcoal pencils in addition to pencil marks and two pen marks. They were all fairly experimental as I aimed to bring out into the open, mark-making with different tools.
I was particularly pleased with the third drawing in which I somewhat exaggerated the perspective and included both linear and squiggle marks.

Reflections on my life-drawing journey: July 4th 2013

these notes are my thoughts placed in my blog which is my personal diary of my life-drawing journey

Drawing Trends July 2013: bobfowleslifedrawing1

A Grouping of Recent self-identified Drawing Phenomena

[no order of priority, importance or significance is suggested by the sequence in which these self-recognised phenomena are listed]

• present the rotated drawing

• two views in a single composition [moving across the studio], opposites (this could include ‘mirror-imaging’)

• body parts in a composition [or in a strange juxtaposition]

• inverting the paper during drawing [as yet, not persuade]

• journey [with lost edges]

• anatomy/rope dynamic

• the ‘cropped’ pose [Paul]

• 2/3/4 gesture compositions

• pairing with a resultant innuendo [same model or two models]

• 3, 4 or 5 distinctive marks

• exaggerated perspective/foreshortening

• equal drawing with both hands

• tonal mark-making
                   unidirectional cross-hatching
                   multi-directional marks
                   contour marks
                   squiggle drawing

Some further paths to follow

• inverting the paper during drawing

• mirror-imaging

Still to address

• Within my evolving mark-making approach how do I creatively engage with a large area, e.g. thigh and buttock of Damaris on July 4th ?

• How do I approach ‘directional’ tonal mark-making? (4 suggestions see above)

Here is my current set of contrasting (and complementary) mark-making tools

• Pencil (light HB, heavy 2B);
• fine liner pen (0.2 up to 0.8);
• tinted charcoal pencils (e.g. ‘dark’ and ‘sand’);
• and for tonal work ‘blocks of tinted charcoal’ and ‘willow charcoal’.

A Life outside life-drawing

Yes! I do have a life outside life-drawing.

So I thought I would post two very recent photographs.

I have a large vegetable garden.

Last evening as I picked lettuce, radish and spring onions for a salad supper, I noticed two copulating Scarlet Tiger Moths on a comfrey leaf.

I ran down to the house and returned with my camera. 

By the time I climbed back to the vegetable garden they were relaxing and one had retreated to the underside of the leaf.

The Scarlet Tiger Moth is rarely seen outside South West Wales.

I live in South East Wales.  

 

Over on the other side of our hill is a red telephone box.

This was our link with the outside world in the 1970's.

Later we had installed in our house a phone.

Now we all carry a mobile.

                                   

Drawing Damaris on July 4th