There are always ropes and straps........

............but usually I don't see them. I don't think about them. I see only the body, the anatomy, the forms within the pose. I see only the parts of the pose which grab my attention. Yet, I only become conscious of that which attracts my attention when it begins to appear on the paper. Drawing is my thinking on paper.

Having said that, occasionally the straps are included. There is an example of this in this posting. I immediately focused on the two feet and particularly the shape of the right foot. But as we were coming towards the end of the 30 minute pose (all poses at Extreme Poses at Stroud are for 30 minutes) I elected to draw in the strap as it was essential to explain the bent distortion of the toes.

But, I now ask myself why add the strap, when it was the form and shape and distortion of the foot which interested me?   Why did I feel the need to explain this foot shape? Why should I want to help the beholder understand what they are looking at? Why do I feel it appropriate to enter the field of 'explanation'? It is my own world of life-drawing that I am within, not the world of realistic representation.

I am raising here above perhaps a fundamental issue in life-drawing and probably a fundamental issue in art generally ......... that of 'realistic representation' as opposed to a 'personnal and idiosyncratic response'. I have over the past three years or so felt that my drawings indicate that I am doing something which comes from within me, can be identified as peculiar to myself, and is something which I feel I have a real ownership of. This view is helped by observations and analysis from my life-drawing colleagues. My morphism, superimposition and overlap, my drawing with both hands simultaneously, my frequent use of fine-liner pen, all are part of this personal approach. And I want to enter this world more and more, and to explore and discover where it will go. So, drawing a strap in order to explain an anatomical distortion does not fit into this journey (at least, I don't think it does). So, I raise an important issue, or do I?

These five drawings come out of what I feel to be a good morning. I felt great going into it. Relaxed, happy, with no anticipation or intention of what I might do. They reflect a contented state of mind at the time. The question is, Are they any different to earlier drawings? I usualy feel quite stressed.

They are posted in the order they were drawn. Each is from a 30 minute pose, on 220gsm A1 cartridge paper, using either fine-liner pen or graphite pencil. All start off with two-handed drawing which is continued with to varying degrees in different drawings. I always have a pen or pencil in each hand but am often not conscious of when marks are appearing from one hand or both.

The linearity issue in my recent drawings - 1

These next three postings include recent drawings produced during a period when I have been debating within myself whether line can address tone. I guess I have always been aware of this question, but recently I have felt that the question needs to be resolved. Most would say that line and tone are different aspects of a drawing. But when I study the drawings of Albrecht Durer I see that all his marks are lines, and areas of tone are made up with lines.

I have just been gifted some books on the work of Durer by a dear friend of mine. In one of them 'Drawings of Albrecht Durer' selected and introduced by Heinrich Wolfflin, the author talks of "the beauty of the whole is not in the figure alone, but in the network of lines in which the figure is, to an extent, enmeshed". He recalls that Durer's drawings are (often) spoken of as 'grand decorative linear systems'. 

When using my fine-liner pens there is no attempt to introduce tone. Sometimes with graphite pencils then tonal work enters into the drawing with some diagonal shading. Sometimes I use charcoal, caressed with the finger, or tinted charcoal with a tissue or my finger, in order to help myself differentiate the various parts of the pose I have brought together and superimposed. Here I am using the tonal treatment as a way of informing what the drawing is of.

So this set of drawings are not in any way the outcome of an investigation or study of the issue of line versus tone. What I want them to be is examples of my drawing techniques which can be analysed to help enter a discussion about line and tone.

The linearity issue in my recent drawings - 2

The linearity issue in my recent drawings - 3