Yesterday at Angela Palmer's life-drawing class in Brockweir in the Wye Valley. I felt good, I'd had just experienced a number of successful and fulfilling days doing the other things I devote my life to, so I was really looking forward to a day of life-drawing. Angela had promised me a free half day for the time I portrait modelled when the life model was late. And to make a significant contribution to this already perfect set up the model was a lady who I had first drawn in Monmouth some weeks ago and I had conveyed her qualities to Angela.
My output was five A1 drawings. And as a set they seem to illustrate my current 'diversity of response'. Here are three, all drawn from the same location.
The first clearly embraces the whole pose. I was instantly attracted to the part of the pose forming a right angle which could locate itself within the right side and base of the paper. But I had to address the lower part of the pose and found no hesitancy in placing it as I did. I discovered later that she was standing on her own hand.
The second response falls well within my 'anagram' approach (this I have addressed on a number of occasions in earlier postings). I enjoy this. I draw each 'bit' in turn, focussing on its qualities and form, but not consciously addressing the overall compositional issues of the whole. However, subconsciously there must be a set of design rules influencing what is happening. With his drawing I clearly recall thinking that I would be simulating the quick 30 minute response slot which we have at Extreme Poees in Stroud, and that I would self-impose a time limit. So this is a quick drawing!
By contrast, the third drawing is not a quick one. I took my time. Deliberately so. I thought at the time, 'Well, I'm here all day, let's exploit the space which this creates. The thinking space. The space to think about something which I don't usually address, or at least have not addressed for some time, which is a more intimate engagement with the qualities of the model'. There is far less mark-making with graphite pencil lines and much more use of the tinted charcoal blocks which when applied to the paper are caressed across its surface either with a tissue or with the tips of my fingers in the processes of tonal blending whilst exploring anatomical beauty.
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