A selection of drawings from the last 3 weeks

I attend two 3 hour life-drawing sessions each week
I go for the morning only at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley. Here we have conventional sitting or lying poses. A pose is held for two Tuesdays, morning and afternoon, allowing oil painters to work on a painting through to completion over  two whole days. However, I tend to explore the pose through a number of drawings, often from varying locations in the studio.
On Thursday morning I go to 'extreme poses' at Pegasus Art in Stroud. This is where Paul Fowler sets up the most exciting and challenging life-drawing experience one can hope to find. The model, sometimes two models, climb into a 'harness' of ropes suspended from the beams, and create amazing forms for us to draw. Poses last for 30 minutes, and we have 5 different poses each morning.

The following drawings are more or less in chronological order. All incorporate my now standard two-handed technique.  All are on A1 220gsm cartridge paper. I start a drawing with my harder graphite woodless pencils, e.g. 2H/H, then begin to emphasise selected aspects with 2B/3B, then a third layer of very selective mark-making using perhaps 7B or 9B. I do not use an eraser, so the final product holds a record of my explorations and of how the drawing has been made. Mistakes are lived with. The learning about the pose and my emerging relationship with the pose is recorded through my mark-making on the surface of the paper.

I am grappling with a number of issues currently, which find expression in these drawings:
(i) seeking tonal variation through the use of line,
(ii) foreshortening, aided by exaggerating that which is nearest,
(iii) utilising soft or lost edges to help the focus on my selected area of interest,
(iv) when presented with a pose, deciding quickly what it is that challenges, then starting to explore that interest on the paper. By this I mean that I instantly set in motion my perceptual-motor response mechanism. I look, I see, I feel. I then somehow transfer my feelings, through my hands, through my pencils, on to the paper. I then become immersed. I enter a meditative state. I then begin to respond to the marks that are appearing on the paper. From here on the drawing evolves: part sub-consciously,  part consciously.

5 minute gesture compilations

I've done 6 life-drawing sessions since my last posting, and here are 3 starters.
At Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley on a Tuesday we often start with three or four 5 minute poses. For quite some time I have taken up the self-imposed challenge of drawing all 3 or 4 poses on the same A1 sheet of cartridge paper. There is probably a degree of anticipation as to what might follow the first pose, but it is only when the model takes up the second pose that a tentative narrative starts to emerge. I frequently find that the third, and if there is one then the fourth pose, can continue the narrative, and go onto complete what may be described as a 'designed' composition.

All drawings are made using both hands simultaneously with graphite woodless pencils.

Some people are really clever

I'll be back at life-drawing next Tuesday after a break, and will be developing further my art of drawing with both hands simultaneously. 
In the meantime here is the very clever Annie Oakley who used a mirrow to sight her target whilst shooting backwards over her shoulder.

A pose from different positions

Following three 5 minute poses we returned to the main pose of the day which was repeated from last Tuesday. I decided to explore a drawing from three different positions. The first is seated low in order to help me bring forward and exaggerate the left leg and foot and correspondingly to reduce the upper part of the body. The second is also seated but I moved my position a metre or so to my left. For the third I raised my easel and stood and moved closer so that I was looking down on to model. In this third relationship the head and feet were almost equidistant from my eyes.

No posting for a couple of weeks as I  am off to Sicily, with my sketch book and inpiration from Frederick Franck's stimulating book 'Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action'.

A deep dialogue with the pose

Here are three recent drawings which I feel represent a breakthrough in my engagement with the pose I am presented with. No longer is the model an object to draw. In fact this concept of the model as an 'object' is something I abandoned and moved beyond some years ago (I have discussed this on my blog on a number of occasions).
So here are three drawings in which 'foreshortening',  'exaggeration',  'depth', 'hard and soft edges', 'a condidered mark-making strategy' are the principal ingredients.
I am suggesting that these drawings are examples of my belief that my drawing is an expression of how I feel about a pose. They are an expressions of feeling rather than a product of an observation.

More feet

With the first drawing I had no hesitation when presented with the two advancing feet.

The second drawing is comprised of two parts executed a few weeks apart. The upper is composed of lines which are shorter and broken, and includes some tonal smudges using a tinted charcoal block and finger. The lower is an example of my more recent attempts to suggest tonal variation by different weights of line.

More foreshortening

For both these I sat low at my easel in order to maximise my sightline up through the pose.
As is usual now I have a graphite pencil in each hand, making their marks simultaneously, on A1 220gsm cartridge paper.

A Moment of Reflection

This morning, October 8th 2015, at Paul Fowler's 'extreme poses' I disabled my confidence in my ability to acheive a satisfactory outcome in my drawing of a life-model. I will indicate my dissatisfaction with my next posting.
So, in the meantime , I took a look back. I Googled 'paul fowler extreme poses' and came up with not only an insight into Paul's amazing set up at Pegasus Art in Stroud, but also a regurgitation of some of my earlier drawings. This is what came up. How should I respond? Do I simply acknowledge that my life-drawing journey has moved on, and now I address things differently? Because, my drawings are now very different. But, I must state that I do value and cherish these drawings. I like them, a lot. And I am able to recall (perhaps vaguely) my feelings at the time I was inside the process of their making.
So, lets take a look. I'm uncertain of their dates.