Twenty double-model poses

On December 1st and 8th at 'extreme poses' in Stroud Paul Fowler gave the stage to two creative models. Three plinths of different heights were placed below the usual trapeze structure and this allowed a fascinating series of dialogues of stimulating poses.
The constants for me were: A1 paper in portrait format, 220gsm cartridge paper, two-handed drawing with graphite pencils. Each day I produced 10 drawings from ten 30 minute poses, 5 before lunch and 5 afterwards.

I post them more or less in the order they were created. If I had an intention then it was to explore the essence of what it is to have two models together, i.e. what is special about the double model pose?  Otherwise I recall being completely relaxed about the two days ahead. So much so that my first response was the opposite of my self-declared intention as I was attracted by the line of the two arms and breasts of one of the models.

Here is a summary of the processes of the two days:

(i) I explored a variety of mark-making techniques from my 'squiggle' (as in this first drawing) thro to my three stage linear approach, and then the 'flowing lines' of the last drawing.

(ii) I soon realised that two models together created an anatomical complexity which was often difficult to unravel, so much so that I did not have to enter my 'deconstruction of the pose before me' and then to 'reconstruct into something which reflected my feelings'.

(iii) Some quite abstract compositions resulted as I focussed on just a part of the dialogue between the two models. On occasions I introduced or superimposed another part of the pose into the composition, and this has resulted in me being unable to recall what I was thinking or doing at the time. When I can't recall the pose, or what I was feeling at the time, this confirms my belief that it is 'the process' which is all important to me (not the drawn outcome), it is 'Me, The Model and The Moment' that is the essence of my art.

(iv) There are some interesting contrasts between 'the dangling suspended body' and 'the body supported on a plinth'.

(v) Usual issues of 'relationship of the drawn pose to the edge of the paper', 'the spatial organisation within the pose and within the depth of the paper',  'exaggerated foreshortening', 'contrast in mark-making', etc., etc., are I believe all addressed in these 20 drawings.

Experiencing Africa through drawing.

During the four weeks of October, Sylvia and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary, by journeying in a truck across Southern Africa. We covered 3200 miles, with numerous additional safari trips. Deserts, mountains, canyons and vast saltpans presented flora, fauna and landscape experiences which Sylvia recorded with her camera.
I had with me an A5 sketch book and some fine-liner pens. I wanted to put into practice the philosophy of Frederick Franck whose book 'Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing' which is all about how drawing can help one go beyond what one is looking at. Drawing can help you to see what you are looking at to the point at which the experience you are having enters the drawing. Feeling or emotion enters into the process of looking and making marks on the paper.
Of course, as an architect I have always drawn, but carrying a sketch book was a rare occurance after my days of student travelling to visit Europe's great architecture. But now my recent life-drawing journey has given me a confidence to 'draw in public', and Franck's writings are convincing evidence that the process of drawing helps one engage so much more with the world around us. He also shows that drawings can be simple, a few lines, perhaps a touch of tonal work. Not much is needed to help one see.

Frederick Franck, 'Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: meditation in action'.  Bantem Books, 1993. Also author of 'The Zen of Seeing'

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 8

In an earlier posting I refer to my drawings responding to 'gesture'. It was rare to find myself in a position where an animal posed still for me. The quick mark-making, recalling the moment, was nearly always the case. It soon became clear to me that each page of my sketch book would hold only a few lines. It soon became clear to me that it was gesture and movement I would be seeing in my drawings.
My experience in drawing these flamingoes was typical. It was not possible to look at 'the model', then do some drawing, then look at the model again, then do some more drawing, etc., etc., because on the second look, however quick, the model had changed position. What I in fact I found myself doing was holding my A5 sketch book in my left hand, raised to my eye level, so that I could simultaneously see the subject and my paper, and then with my fine-liner pen in my right hand do some quick drawing. Obviously, the eye did move back and forth but very speedily. But this is probably just like it is with me when I life-draw.

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 7

From the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, we crossed Botswana then down through Namibia where we touched the waters of the South Atlantic. Here a boat trip to see the dolphins. But no dolphins this time we were quite content with this sight of a seal colony. Seals also hurled themselves on to the boat and sat alongside the pelicans sitting on the boat rails all of which were quite used to being supplied with fish by the crew as a reward for their performances.
Inland, my sketch book holds a record of many experiences I found fascinating. Here is the nest of the sparrow weaver bird, which has two entrances so that a quick escape can be made from an enemy entering through the other one. A tree will have many of these, and from a distance they give the appearance of large hairy fruit to start with.

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 6

We had organised for us to meet with a group of San people in the Kalahari desert. We walked with them looking at animal footprints and digging for medicinal plant roots. The group consisted two mothers with babies, two elderly women, and two young men.

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 5

In the Okavanga Delta in Botswana we left the truck for a few days and travelled for about two hours by mokorow to a tented camp. The villagers with their poles, like a punt, quietly steered us through reeds along channels carved by hippos. Mokorows used to be carved from whole tree trunks but now most are made of fibreglass.
In the camp (no electricity, no air-con, etc.) each tent had a screened extension in which a deep hole in the ground had a seat placed over it and also a tripod structure to support a bucket shower. It was whilst I pulled the leaver and allowed a few droplets of cold water to fall on to my upturned face while I was being challenged by the scorching sun (it was at least 42 degrees C) that I experienced a 'Thoreauesque' moment (you will recall the American transcendentalist who built a hut on the edge of Walden Pond in order to experience a divorce from western materialstic life). There was I, totally by myself, under the blazing sun, in a naked natural state, with the source of all life cooling my body, surrounded by wilderness, looking up into a huge space somewhere in this vast openess which is Africa. It was a magical feeling.

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 4

Our group of 16 travelled 3200 miles in this truck. Here we have stopped for a 'bushy-bushy' on a mountain pass in Namibia (ladies to the left, men to the right). Also in Namibia in the Namib-Naukluft National Park we climbed the world's largest dunes up to 1000 feet high.

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 3

These oryx gathered round and stared at me. They seemed inquisitive about my apparently unusual if not rare behaviour. Perhaps they were more used to the click of a camera.
We did in fact eat many local dishes including oryx, also eland and impala, which are all antelope type animals. I was quite happy with this as these particular oryx were bred for such purpose.

Experiencing Africa through drawing: 2

A few weeks ago I indicated that I would be posting some of my drawings from my Africa sketch book. I suppose the main difference between drawing the life model to drawing animals in the wild is that animals are constantly on the move. The one common aspect which I soon became aware of is the importance of responding to, and capturing 'gesture'. These observations apply equally to elephants as to the other fauna which will be seen in my other drawings.

The enjoyment

Inspiration may be gleaned from numerous and diverse sources. Below a drawing by Michaelangelo.

I have just been absorbed in Petr Wittlich's 'Art Nouveau Drawings'. In this book he discusses the life and art of Mucha, Beardsley, Redon, Rodin, Klimt, Schiele and others. Yet it is with the drawings (particularly of the female nude) of Rodin, Klimt and Schiele that I find a home. However, here are two pieces of text, from the book, within which I also find a home. For me, they help my understanding of what it is I am experiencing in my process. I have often referred to 'art as process' or 'process art' in order to emphasise that for me the outcome, the final drawing, is of secondary importance. My art is meditative, it is therapy. It is personal. It is enjoyment.

These two paragraphs are with reference to Auguste Rodin:

"The main thing for him was, apparently, the enjoyment derived from the source of the drawings themselves, the general psychic response of his personality reacting to the stimulus of natural reality (the naked figure): the moment in which he mobilized all his subjective faculties - the perceptive power of his eye, the nervous excitement, the skill of his hand to grasp and give expression to something that sprang from his emotions"

"The act of drawing, which is here practised on the intimately-known shape of the female body, involves the total concentration of all his abilities, knowledge and energy of its performer, who, in experiencing a sympathetic balancing between his personality and the female as representing 'human nature', moves from the dead calm of the academic pose to the inexhaustable wealth of living expression and movement. At the same time, the artist goes beyond a traditional work of art with its limits of accepted meanings. Art thus becomes an aid to raising the intensity of a positive attitude to life in quite a new, modern, dynamic and practical sense".

The Process 3

This is the third of my attempts to say something about my 'process art' with reference to my four drawings at Tony Tribes life-drawing day on November 26th at Arts Alive in Crickhowell.
I so much enjoy the challenges of exploring 'perspective', 'foreshortening' and 'exaggeration' in the context of the lying pose, particularly when I can adjust my position in relation to the model. This often requires me to lower my easel and to sit down. Here we are resuming after lunch so have had nearly three hours standing, and sitting is welcomed. The disadvantage is that my usual kinetic drawing approach is inhibited, in that I cannot easily move back and forth to and from my easel to judge how the drawing is developing. This is essential with most drawings but particularly where the challenges noted above are to be addressed.
Penny is lying on her tummy, with her head on her arms. I can see the lower part of her body over her head. I rarely measure these days, i.e. moving my thumb up and down along my vertically held pencil, but I did on this occasion as I was uncertain as to where to place the top of the head on the paper. In other words how much of the composition would be taken up by the length of the perspective of her body in relation to her head and arms. I was very surprised to discover that the former was about one third, if that, of the later (to start with these two parts appeared that they could be more equal, but I intuitively knew this could not be the case). I also felt that some foreground should be included to give her arms and hands something to rest upon. (Something has just struck me: in composing this process description it is very clear that at the time of this drawing I was fully embracing issues of 'composition'. And one thing that I know I do not consciously address is the placing of the drawing on the paper. Years ago I had tremendous and frustrating battles in getting the drawing on the page. Now, it is the exception when an arm shoots off the paper, unless it is intended. Now, issues of composition are dealt with within my skilled subconcious).
I have included below a drawing of a different model from a few weeks ago, just to view the two together. I enjoyed both explorations of the issues involved. The foot allowed for a fuller engagement with the fun of 'exaggeration'.

The Process 2

This was the second pose of the day. About 2 hours with Penny sitting on a stool. My thinking: I have drawn Penny in similar seated poses many times over the years. So let me challenge myself. I know I get a lot of satisfaction in exploring 'overlapping drawings'. I also have also followed a process recently in which I react to that part of the pose which fascinates me for one reason or another, so I start with this and this initiates a process which then can almost have a life of its own. This first drawing starts with the head, arm and hands, as this was the part which really interested me. But then I became aware of the outline from the neck, down through the beasts and including the tummy. Could this drawing take anything else? Can I challenge myself further by superimposing on top of the two parts already included a third part. I like feet, and the inclusion of a foot would give a base to the composition. Refining each part, giving emphasis to certain aspects, and ensuring that not too much uncertainty and ambiguity remained, were aspects I consciously focussed on. I made a decision to stop. I felt I had covered the point of this drawing, and felt like doing something different.
I had about 40 minutes of the two hours left, and this desire to do something different was quite strong. I hade done a lot of pencil drawing recently with very little use of my tonal tinted charcoal approach. The arm, and particularly the two hands clasped together, had already been my starting point with the pencil drawing and my desire to explore this part of the pose further excited me. So without any hesitation the arm and hand were introduced to the paper, they moved around a bit with the elbow particularly gradually moving down the drawing  as I attempted the slight foreshortening of the lower arm. Looking down into the cup of the right hand was a challenge. But I like drawing hands (as well as feet). A principal question was 'how far to I go into including the rest of the pose?'. And this question was answered by my feeling that the hands should be the focus of attention.
Tinted charcoal has attractive qualties: when applid to the paper it can be stroked with a tissue which picks up the grainy particles and leaves a 'water colour like wash' appearance, or it can be rubbed into the texture of the paper with the finger so leaving a darker tone. It is transparent so that earlier pencil marks can still be seen, enabling the history of the construction and the making of the drawing to be recorded. Having a charcoal base allows graphite pencil marks to be placed on top (Derwent also do a tinted grahite block in the same colours. This has very different qualities). I do enjoy exploring the differences between the graphite pencil and tinted charcoal, both when used apart, or within the same drawing.

The Process 1

This is the first pose of the day run by Tony Tribe at Arts Alive in Crickhowell on November 26th. The model is Penny. This is a 10 minute pose.
In these 'Process' postings I want to try and relate the essence of my thinking at the time.
Here I was immediately attracted by the back of the head appearing over the shoulders as they curved away from me, and the curve of the back. These I explored on the A1 220gsm cartridge paper with a graphite pencil in each hand with fairly gentle flowing lines. Also the triangular gap/space/view formed by the arm, leg and torso through which I could see the folds of the tummy and the breast, was essential to emphasise in the drawing. I picked up two softer pencils and strengthened these components of the pose. But then I also wanted to let my drawing tell that I had appreciated the form of the whole pose, yet the scale I had already used to respond to the parts which had attracted me at the beginning meant the bottom, legs and feet should be off the paper. So this is where I employed my 'anagram' approach, which is when I include all the parts but deconstruct the pose and reconstruct the parts in a new relationship to each other. I then picked up a 7B or 8B pencil in my right hand and introduced heavy marks/lines at points of tonal contrast. Then time was up. Not sure what else I would have included with more time. I often say that it is important to stop before ones gets to the end, so knowing when I have reached a point in a process of mark-making, after which unnecessary/redundant and often damaging work can often be added, is for me a critical skill. For me this drawing holds the essence of what I was experiencing during the ten minute process.

'A new path?' ?.........continued.

This posting follows on from my posting of November 11th in which I included my drawings of the model Robin at 'extreme poses' in Stroud. That was my first life-drawing session after my Africa trip, and I suggested something different was occurring. With Paul Fowler, my mentor, we hinted at something different, and attempted to describe/define it. But I believe unsuccessfully. So here are my drawings from the next two Thursday morning sessions at 'extreme poses',   again Paul and I had conversations about them, and again he expressed interest in changes he was detecting. I am not sure what he is seeing and I am unsure what is happening, but I have a feeling that (dare I say) a fundamental move is on the way. In fact, and completely unrelated to my conversations with Paul, I was talking with Robin during our coffee break and she commented "There you are Bob, busily drawing away, as you always do with a pencil in each hand, and yet when I come to look at your work it always seems to be changing, subtle small changes but constant change". Let's waite and see if it is revolutionary or evolutionary change ........ I sense more of the later.

In the past I have regularly revealed my fascination with the tripartite relationship of 'the model...the drawing.....the artist'. I have talked before about the artist-model relationship and how both contribute to the success of the life-drawing session. However, I have just come across an exhibition catalogue 'Drawology' by Deborah Harty whose research is into 'Drawing is Phenomenology' see:       www.drawing-research-network.org.uk.   and here are two quotes which I feel may help me focus on what I feel is currently happening with my art.
   "drawing has the ability to record both its own making and the movement of the thoughts and body of the drawer"
   "(the process of) drawing unlocks the door between what is in the mind and what comes out on paper"
Whilst the emphasis here is on the artist-drawing relationship, which in the scientific process is being isolated so it can be studied, we should not forget the role of the model in the multi-directional interplay of the processes of interaction between the three contributors to the trilogy.