Apples and Bees: in between life-drawing

A pleasant day away from life-drawing, seeing my bees enjoying themselves in the warmth of the sun, and picking up the windfalls ready to make cider.

More 5in1's on October 29th 2013.

Not 5in1

Drawing Jacquie on October 26th 2013

Drawing Martin on October 22nd 2013: a variation on my 5in1 series.

This drawing starts with three 8 minute poses at the start of the morning session. I've an HB pencil in each hand, and like nearly all my work it is on A1 220gsm cartridge paper. Although I felt that the three poses achieved a pleasing composition and I was fairly happy with the quality of my mark-making, in line with my recent intentions to introduce complexity into my work I decided to bring into the drawing some selected parts of the main pose of the day. Additionally I decided to change to 2H pencils and to utilise my exploratory squiggle technique. In this second layer of drawing I am trying not to use lines but to search for and create tonal areas.

 

 

 

 

This next project starts off again with a two handed linear drawing but this time of the main seated pose of the day. I then moved my easel around the studio to select parts of the pose to introduce complexity into the work. I am also searching to create ambiguity, which I have discussed in my previous '5in1' postings. I tightly grouped the five contributions together on the right side of the composition for two reasons, a) I liked the triangulations formed by the arm and legs and wanted this to remain, and b) by tightly grouping the separate parts I hoped to blend them together in order to introduce an uncertainty (ambiguity) which would require the viewer to 'look twice' to see what is happening. I think this is a fairly pleasing example of the anatomical gymnastics which has crept into my work over the past weeks.          

 

 

This approach is unplanned.

The composition is not designed.

The sequence of arrival of the contributions is to a large extent random, but their selection and placement does become more considered as the drawing evolves.

There is a hope that the whole will convey something more than just the sum of its parts: "I recognise a hand and a foot, etc., but how is this body possible? What am I looking at?" 

I could say my life-drawing is beginning to embrace elements which are abstract and surreal.    

CONNECTIONS with my '5in1' Project

My blog is my way of keeping a record of my life-drawing journey, and then sharing this journey with friends and particularly with those who I life-draw with. I do get responses from others and when this has happened, from artists from all over the world, an extra dimension is given to my work. Fulfilling encounters have resulted.

 

Back in the early days of my blog I included a number of artists and their websites which excited me and gave me inspiration. Very recently I feel I have taken ownership of my life-drawing journey and the work I do is coming from within myself.

 

But this recent part of my journey has not taken place in isolation. I constantly access the work of other artists through their own websites, through galleries, and under specific and selected key words. I do this on my Samsung Tablet and when I come across a 'relevant' item I download and save it.

I also photograph all my drawings on my Tablet, prior to placing them (most of them) on this blog.

 

Prior to a life-drawing day (and at other times) I will often stroll through both these sets of images and relive my life-drawing journey in a kind of preparation for the next steps ahead. I strongly believe that my journey is 'evolutionary' i.e. building upon that which has gone before, whereas earlier I moved about, experimented, and tried different approaches.

 

So, to date, this resource of images (and quotes) has been a very private activity, which I have used to replenish, support, embellish, reinforce and sometimes challenge and question my journey. My interpretation of an image may be far from the artist's intention, the link to my own work may only be personal to me, the relationship between a particular image and anything I have produced may not only be obscure but non-existent to anyone else. Yet to me, there is connection, and in every case a deep, provocative, stimulating, satisfying and encouraging relationship.

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 in 1: Nos 6 ............. October 10th 2013

And now for something completely different to the content of the five previous postings. I am still exploring my '5in1' project, and I am again back at Extreme Poses. BUT this time with two models up in the ropes, and two models who we know so well: Robin and Paul.

 

What's new? I am able to select a contribution (part of a pose) which includes a bit of each model. This probably adds to the degree of ambiguity in the drawing.

As before I am still coming to terms with this emerging and evolving approach to life drawing, and I shall be posting my thoughts some time in the future.

 

In the meantime I ask you to take a close look at this one and work out which is part of Robin and which is part of Paul. My only hint is that Robin, facing the beholder, is resting her head on her own hip.  

 

5 in 1: Nos 5 ........... October 8th 2013

Today was a challenge.

All the 5in1's have so far been created in life-drawing sessions at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, where we have five half-hour poses with the model up in the ropes. Today I am at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley where we have the same model in the same pose for two consecutive Tuesdays.

As a result I have to myself create a sequence of arrival of selected parts. So to some extent I could anticipate a final composition, or at least suggest to myself a strategy for engaging with the project. However I tried hard not to do either. I did succeed. And here is the result, which I have yet to make a considered judgement about. 

 

 

 

For the above drawing I was located at the foot of the model who was lying on her side. Try working that one out from the drawing! I indicate above that I am uncertain about the result, and at the time I could have decided to add additional parts. But I had already included, in the order of drawing: the breast and chest, the head and hand, the left foot, the bottom, and finally her right foot. So here was a more or less complete body, and I liked the asymmetry and the questions that the drawing asked. 

 

After lunch I moved location to view the full length of the model from left to right before me. The drawing proceeded from left to right with the head being the second contribution and locating itself at her right knee

 

 

The above is the two handed pencil drawing, to which I then added some tonal emphasis with a fine-liner pen in each hand. 



 

Drawing Abigail on October 8th 2013

These are two drawings at the start of the morning and secondly at the start of the afternoon sessions. Each include three 8 minute poses and are drawn with a 2B pencil in each hand on A1 cartridge paper.

Although only three poses were available I'm still employing the approach of my current '5 in 1' series, so there is no hint or expectation about poses 2 and 3, and so no initial ideas about composition or any narrative which may emerge.  

 

 

5 in 1: Nos 4 ......... October 3rd 2013

 I've included 'two' stage drawings in this posting.

 

Here is a good example of one of the characteristics I am seeking in this current approach, i.e. 'ambiguity'.

The first of the five contributions to this composition is the knee, leg and two feet. The second places the head on the knee. Standing back from my easel I then saw that the knee and leg could be interpreted as the shoulder and arm. This was not designed or intended in any way. It just happened to suggest this interpretation. And this gave me great pleasure. 

 

 

 

Below, the third contribution is selected and drawn in.

I felt at the time that an interesting relationship between the two heads might result, and that a narrative of two figures inter-twinned might prove provocative.



 

 

In the end the impact of the third contribution was reduced with the addition of the hands, followed by the fifth contribution to the lower right of the composition 

 

 

 A number of other ambiguities appear but the one that has just struck me, as I write these notes some days later, is that the hands, although they are how they appeared together in the fourth pose, could be seen to belong to two different people, i.e. the upper right hand to the guy on the top left, and the other hand to the guy whose upper body we do not see.

I am beginning to enjoy these gymnastic ambiguities.