Four drawings of Paul

Here are four drawings which continue my approach to my life-drawing which I described in my previous posting. Again the model is up in the ropes at Extreme Poses, This time it is Paul our male model whereas last week we had Robin one of our two regular female models.

I am not yet, and may never be, in a position to give a descriptive title to the approaches I am pursuing.  Recent postings have attempted a few terms, but very tentative at this stage. Perhaps I should not attempt to classify/catorgarise these approaches as this may (and I have a strong feeling it would) take the novelty, the experimentation, the exploration, the everchanging nature of what I do, out of the equation. Take the first drawing as an example. One could describe it as 'hands and feet'. But it is so much more than that. Paul is facing me in a sitting position about two metres away, I am standing at my easel, he is above my head height. His knees are framing his face, his torso provides a large background, but it is his advancing hands and feet which attract and which I feel excited about. So I start to outline his right hand then his left hand but in drawing them large enough I bring them closer together. Similarly with his feet. All four begin to advance towards me (in the drawing) and a clear 'spatial' quality emerges within the drawing/composition, within the paper. I continue with my mark-making through my now usual 3 layer approach. I then ask myself how I address the rest of the pose. What about the head, the chest the full length of the arms and the legs? Do I stop here and leave it to the beholder to sort the pose out? Or do I start to include something else? The 30 minutes are up! As usual, as nearly always, this then is not a finishhed drawing. It is part of a process, it is an event in my life-drawing journey. No title, no classification, no product, but it will be reflected upon.

Stepping into the unknown

I felt today that a number of my recent 'experiments' in drawings over the past month or two had prepared a kind of platform from which was emerging a new set of life-drawing experiences. The drawings here (January 21st at Extreme Poses) for me hold the newish ideas I am beginning to develop about how I perceive a pose, and how I feel about a pose, and what aspects of a pose fascinate me, and how I wish to utilise my mark-makng approach in the making of the drawing.
Each drawing below  is of a different pose each of which lasts for 30 minutes. So I produce 5 drawings in the 3 hour morning session, with 30 minutes for a coffee break and valuable discussions with other members of the class. However I am beginning to reduce the time I make marks and increase my looking and thinking time. No longer a frantic rush to fill the 30 minutes with drawing. Consequently fewer unwanted lines, almost no marks of frustration.

More of tall lean John

The second drawing represents me thinking about what happens when I embark on one of my 'exaggerated foreshortening' approaches. Its kind of analytical, and includes a very quick inset sketch of the actual pose as perceived by the normal eye.

Tall lean John

Just got home and before I go up the fields to cut some logs thought I'd photograph this morning's engagement with some of my recently recurring themes.
Three 5 minute quickies, the first pose on the left felt like addressing a Giacometti sculpture.
Then on to the main pose for the morning, and immediately I was compelled to explore the journeys up and down the left and right sides of the pose, up and down the arm and leg with a hand as a kind of middle feature to both. This approach then incorporates my 'counterbalance' space, which is left to the beholder to fill in and perhaps suggest to themselves what the overall pose might be.
For the 3rd drawing I just had to explore the exaggeration of bringing forward the lower right leg which was the part of the pose nearest to me, and then reducing the perspective of the upper part of the body. Playing with this foreshortening and perspective was helped by John sitting on a plinth placed on a table and me getting as low as possible by sitting at my easel.
Finally I walked around the model and found the long arm and hand, and played with tonal aspects using a tinted charcoal block which I spread with a tissue.

As always nowadays I have a graphite pencil in each hand, utilse three layers of mark-making from light hard leads (2H/H) thro' (2B/3B/4B) to heavier soft leads (8B/9B), and draw on A1 220gsm white cartridge paper.

Intimacy 2

Robin with Natalie in Stroud, and Sue with Michelle in Brockweir: two amazing opportunities to explore rare double-model poses. My big thanks to all four.

Intimacy 1

Drawings which explore the intertwining of two models in a series of double-model poses.

Homing in on Paul

Four drawings which illustrate current pre-occupations in my life-drawing journey, which are addressed in recent postings.

The parts and the whole

Just to show my fascination with challenging my own perception of what I'm presented with. The 'advancing foot' and 'foreshortening' were two immediately attractive issues to explore. But also there was the journey up thro' the pose, stopping every so often to highlight points of interest and attraction, but without drawing the pose as a whole.

Mostly hands and feet

Looking at a pose differently

I've regularly attempted explorations of a pose which challenge my initial perception of what I am presented with. This is sometimes done to relieve the boredom of being presented with a 'traditional classical' seated or standing pose. But more frequently it is a particular aspect or part(s) of a pose which I want to explore. Here are three very recent examples of this approach.

Drawing a feeling

I am finding it very difficult to put this aspect of my art into words. Particularly to articulate it on my blog. You will know that usually I have a go to communicate my thoughts and my analysis. But I do feel that I am beginning to arrive at something special, and particular, during my past few life-drawing sessions.
I have begun to focus on 2, 3 or 4 parts of the pose which I am attracted to. I draw these on my paper more or less in the relationship they have in the pose. But I draw them each large, and mostly they are each closer together on the drawing than they are in the pose. Yet, there is a space 'within' these parts which I have created. Normally, it would be a drawing of the rest of the pose. But I have not drawn this rest of the pose. Paul Fowler has named this space 'counterbalance'. And I loved this idea. I saw immediately what he meant by this term of 'counterbalance'. It allows the parts which I have a feeling for, and therfore have been attracted to draw, to have a context, to have a reason for being included. It allows the beholder, or perhaps better put, it challenges the beholder to construct for themselves the pose.
So lets see if this works for you!
This approach, issue, way of doing a life-drawing, I feel has loads of potential for me. I am so very excited by it.

Twist and gesture

I am pleased with the way I have responded to the twist and turn of the body in these two poses.

I explore the pose on the A1 220gsm white cartridge paper with a graphite pencil in each hand. Firstly, the initial exploration using hard graphite, 2H and H. Then a focus on key lines and forms with a 2B and 3B, and finally I hold 8B and 9B and focus in on the significant highlights of interest. Adopting this 3 stage layered strategy of mark-making, and forgetting about it as 'technique',  I find frees me to get on and become 'emotionally' involved in expressing my 'feeling'.

I recall that inspiring quote from Pavlova: "First master technique, then forget it. For without heart, there can be no art".