Then and Now!

From two-handed squiggle drawing with HB wood pencils to two-handed, bolder, graphite pencil: mark-making over time.

Virtual: July 27th

Fra is modelling again in Andrew's Monday evening virtual life-drawing session:

a close up study exploring textures and marks with graphite pencils, willow charcoal and compressed charcoal (with a complete indifference to any sense of proportional representational accuracy, i.e. the hand grew larger and larger during the process of the drawing , the knees were brought in from the left in order to include them in the composition, and the breast descended so as to be included)................

and a part portrait in HB wood pencils juxtaposed with a line-liner pen drawing of two models (I recall Kate and Jemma over at Neil Bally's studio in Talgarth) from a few years ago...............

and also four quick poses brought together in one compositional drawing (in this process one has to rely upon one's instinct to anticipate what might be coming next, sometimes it works, usually (I find) it does!

Virtual: July 20th.

Andrew is modelling with:
2 x 2.5 minute poses
1 x 5 minutes
1 x 10 minutes
1 x 25 minutes
1 x 45 minutes

As previously I selected some old drawings from which I could choose an appropriate one when Andrew assumed his pose. I also brought into play another earlier approach of mine in which I placed on the paper geometric forms which would help me enter into the vast space of the paper. For many years I have not seen the paper as a 2-dimensional surface. It is a huge space which not only penetrates into the depths of the paper but also goes beyond the edges of the paper. This space also comes forward  to engage with me as I stand or sit on the other side. In a live life-drawing situation the space which I am perceiving then also goes beyond to engage and embrace the model. I have held this concept in my life-drawing activity for quite some time now, and have discussed it previously. Then within these geometrical spatial structures I can place the pose, or parts of the pose, as I react to them. Different scales and different perspectives can be used in different parts of the drawing. This framework, for me, does not impose strict  boundaries. Bits can burst out of the parameters of the geometries and thereby overlap and superimpose, which has become a pre-occupation of mine and so a characteristic of my recent work.

More of the present meeting the past

It is Andrew's virtual life-drawing with Fra our model, on July 13th. After the experiment of last week when I selected past drawings as a base I continued with this approach. There had been a particular request for Fra to simulate the well known reclining pose by Ingres. The one in which she looks over her right shoulder at the beholder and has an extremely elongated back. So I was able to have available half a dozen drawings of my own reclining poses from years past from which to select one appropriate for exploring a complementary juxtapositioning. In the end I used two similar drawings during the 45 minute pose. These were in HB wood pencil, one in each hand, in the early days of my two handed drawing journey. So I used HB's again.

There are five drawings in all which follow different approaches:
Nos 1. Two five minute poses at the beginning of the session
Nos 2 & 3. After Ingres
Nos 4. A straightforward frontal with an enjoyable knee using graphite pencils
Nos 5. Here Fra moved slowly around for about five minutes and you will see I briefly captured four stages of her movements with simple outline gestures, and placed around two poses by another dancer, Robin at Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' in Stroud, again some years ago.

Virtual meets Reality

The last few postings record what has been my one life-drawing event of the week which is sitting in front of my big tv screen having plugged in my computer to it and participating in Andrew Buckle's life drawing program. It filled the gap but I was tending to withdraw into my comfort zone and repeat some of my experiences from the past and nothing different or new was emerging. I was morphing, superimposing, and juxtaposing anatomical parts in experimental ways.
Then, at the weekend I decided to start a clearance of my huge stack of past drawings. I've attempted this before but always found a huge reluctance to actually throw some away. Every drawing had role at the time in the evolving journey for all kinds of reasons. However this time was different, and I had the particular idea of furthering my interest into the complexities of the work of Francis Picabia (referred to many times in previous postings) and retain some pieces which I could use as a 'starting point' or 'foundation' or for 'initiating a narrative'. So on Monday evening July 6th, I made available about 12 or so drawings which I could select from when Andrew set up his pose on the screen. I had to instantly make a connection and see a possible relationship. I have found, upon reflection, that what came out of this session with the 4 drawings is a fairly newish response and I have been attempting (as I always do) to find an appropriate vocabulary to describe it. I say it is 'fairly newish' because I can see many connections with that which has happened in the past. But a term such as 'anatomical surrealism' may be appropriate. However, because the starting drawings are from about 10 years ago my principal thought was that I would be contrasting in each drawing my mark-making, e.g. my squiggle technique using two HB wood pencils often of a whole pose, with my bolder response using graphite pencils and juxtaposing selected parts of a pose (that's just one of the comparative aspects which came to mind).
So, here are the four results. And perhaps I will add a note about them following further reflections or may be just look forward to next Monday.

Virtual life-drawing in June: Nos 5

With Fra as our model.