A quick revisit.

 These drawings are from a pose from a few weeks ago with Fra as our model, but I remember it well and apart from the drawings I posted at the time, tonight I just wanted to draw something, and going through my blog postings I was reminded of the amazing close up and foreshortening. So here is what I came up with: graphite pencil and charcoal, on A1 cartridge paper.

And then the following morning I morphed them. What you have to try and imagine is what has not been drawn which as far as I can recall is Fra's left shoulder and arm and her left knee and shin, as she lay on her right side facing the artists via her camera. The tonal mark-making was for me straightforward to do as it is typical of a period of my life-drawing during which I extensively used Derwent tinted charcoal which I caressed across and into the surface of the paper with my fingers. Here I am doing something similar with my big thick stick of willow charcoal and my fingers.

Two models and mirrors

 Andrew and Wren are modelling in their own homes. They have arranged to have a mirror each and the following poses were pre-arranged: 4x5minutes, 1x5minutes both in motion, 1x10minutes and finally 1x50minutes each with a chair. In this final pose I failed to get them both on my screen at the same time but was able to click across from one to the other as I wished.

Well.....did El Greco have an impact?

 Following on from my previous post I don't think anything significant happened as a result of my reunification with the Greek. I had probably already been imbued with his influence so far back in my youth that input from his art has become fundamental to mine. However, on Monday evening's virtual life session organised by Andrew with himself as the model there was a change from the usual format. Andrew introduced a mirror in which of course the pose, or parts of the pose, were reflected. A mirror is not a new item for me. Perhaps the most memorable occasion was over in Talgarth at Neil Bally's studio where the lying model posed between two huge mirrors so that we had three figures to respond to. I recall this very well because I am certain it projected me into my Cubism, which I define as 'looking at a model from a number of different viewpoints simultaneously'. When space in a life venue allowed I would move my easel around the model, sometimes into more than two positions, and include all the viewpoints in one drawing. Morphing and overlap came out of the different juxtapositions that emerged on the paper, which have now become regular aspects of my drawing language. 

So here are last evening's output. We had 3x5minute poses (which are included in the first two drawings) followed by 2x35minute poses. As is usual I am starting with a graphite pencil in each hand and mark-making with them simultaneously, then entering a single dominant handed process in order to refine the forms and to give any emphasis where desired. 

There is no mirror in the first drawing. When the frame is included, and I have claimed this on a number of occasions over the years, I believe the straight line provides a powerful geometric contrast to the organic nature of the lines of the body and enhances them. At Paul Fowler's 'extreme poses' in Stroud the inclusion of a line of a plinth or a supporting strap was something I regularly exploited.

So, some interesting variables were present: El Greco, the mirror and a virtual life drawing venue. Let's see if wecan detect any influence from any one or all three?

Meeting with my old friend Domenikos Theotokopoulos

It's 4.00pm on Friday March 12th and I've joined the 'Talk and Draw' session from the National Gallery. I thought I'd give it a go because the subject was El Greco and it might be interesting to do some drawing in relation to his paintings. My interest in El Greco goes back some 62 years when my art master at my school said that the elongated way in which I drew my figures resembled those of El Greco. I bought a number of books of his paintings which have always been readily accessible on my bookshelves wherever I have lived. However I have not made a conscious link or any kind of connection with his portrayal of the human body and the way I draw it during my life-drawing journey of more than a decade. But the morning after, when I returned to the room with my two drawings on my easel I was quite taken aback and I started to reflect upon my response during the session and tried to recall how I was thinking:

•     the anatomical exaggeration of muscles 
•     the twist and turn in individual poses
•     the gesture of hands
•     the foot shapes
•     the perspective of the head leaning back
•     and the extraordinary composition within the figure in the right foreground as his head is supported on his hand, his elbow on his left hand, his left hand on his knee and the foot taking the weight down on to the floor [How many times have I enjoyed exploring this sequence when it is presented by our models in the live studio?]

The 'Talk and Draw' contained a fifteen minute presentation by an art historian of the life and work of El Greco and a detailed examination of the composition and painting technique of 'Christ driving the traders from the temple'  Then an artist described how artists over time had been influenced by this particular painting, from Picasso to Auerbach. It was the later's quick free bold quite abstract technique which she pushed as an example of a relevant contemporary response and kind of encouraged us to pursue something similarly as free. So we were asked to start by just making any sort of mark or squiggle on our paper. This was not what I had anticipated and at this point I found my eye travelling over and around the painting (projected large on my tv screen) and sort of noticing aspects of interest, i.e. the six items listed above.

Upon reflection I can see that I was responding to the content of this painting as I do when in front of a life model (whether live or virtual), and I have to admit I became so engulfed in this process that I became completely oblivious to the words and hence the suggestions, directions and any instructions. I probably missed something which would have had a significant impact on my own art and introduced me to something new. But I will never know.

 

I think we had about 30 minutes of drawing time and I covered two A1 sheets of cartridge paper using a graphite pencil in each hand.

                                    drawings to be added when photographed

It's now Sunday evening and I have just photographed my two drawings. They both include as their core structure the last of the six aspects I focused upon which I listed above.

In this first drawing 'the arm and elbow on hand on knee' from top right down thro' the central part of the composition can be clearly seen. On the left the outstretched arm of the figure holding the basket complements this diagonal form. Then the hand at the top left starts off a playful introduction of three gestural hand shapes down the  right side of the composition. Finally an amazing foot detail is introduced at the bottom left.

I love the movement created by the lines of this outcome, and for me I also see an energy which seems to emit from the centre of the drawing which for the observer becomes a magnet drawing their eye into the heart of the composition. 

In the second drawing we are drawn closer to the 'elbow on hand on knee' event, and this again provides the basic structure to the composition. El Greco's amplification of muscular anatomy is celebrated in the leg on the left hand side, and then a degree of spatiality is further introduced as we look down upon the foot of Christ and up to the underside of the chin and up into the nostrils of the figure on the right.

 I noted above that  "I was responding to the content of this painting as I do when in front of a life model". Upon further reflection I believe this realisation is quite significant. For many years now my only art has been drawing in front of a life model. A few interruptions to this have included drawings in my sketch books during annual Italian visits and other trips such as the recent treck across Southern Africa. I now draw with a line. I believe my line does reflect tone. Yet above all else it is to do with 'spatiality', and this is where transparency, overlap and superimposition play such an important role. This is my art, or at least a description of my art at this time, and I find it so fascinating, rewarding and uplifting that I am able to re-engage in such a fulfilling manner with my friend Domenikos Theotokopoulos of all those years ago.

Recent themes continued

Over recent weeks it appears that virtual life-drawing has encouraged in me an emphasis on a number of themes, which I will refer to as:

• Layering
• Rotation
• Contrasting mark-making

In connection with layering I have used a number of parallel descriptive terms: superimpositioning and transparency frequently appear, along with concepts of spatiality, perspective, depth, exaggeration and foreshortening. This is about working in three dimensions, but I have gone further and discussed my entering the fourth dimension. I have consistently referred to the transparency period of Francis Picabia, who when I discovered his paintings helped me to understand something about what I had been experimenting with and exploring for some time, in my own way.

I have often played around with rotating a drawing. Not only presenting it in a different orientation to that in which was composed. But also occasionally rotating my paper on my easel during the process of making the drawing. When I discovered that Egon Schiele sometimes placed his logo (showing name and date) at 90 degrees to the original orientation in order to confuse and play with his sponsors and exhibition organisers I employed this same technique and often it seemed to elevate the drawing to another, and more interesting level. 

My drawing technique has gone through a number of distinctive changes over the years. To start with the medium, whether pencil, charcoal, conte, pastel, etc., was held in one hand. Then my two-handed approach appeared and with pencil, charcoal and fine-liner pens, I pursued a more exploratory and searching mark which developed into my squiggle technique of two pencils or pens working closely together on the paper gradually building up the figure. By taking an early drawing and superimposing upon it a current one the change and contrast over time can be examined.

So all of the above is evident in my responses to drawing Fra on the evening of March 8th. She presented:  3x5minute poses (one of which was a moving pose), 1x15minute seated pose, and 1x55minute lying pose. During the final pose I in fact produced three drawings.

Random juxtapositioning with Wren: revisited

These four drawing with fine-liner pens when originally photographed and posted appeared not very clear. Some lines were extremely light especially those with my unskilled hand which at times just seems to hover lightly on the paper and tentatively follows my dominant hand. So I decided to give an  emphasis to my lines and carefully traced over them with a 4B graphite pencil.

Now it is very rare that I return to a drawing after the life-drawing session is over and do additional work on it. Very rare indeed. So this is an exception.

Whereas in the original drawing there is quite a variation in weight of line I have transformed all lines to one strength or weight. As a result when I look at the actual outcome I see a definite change as the drawing appears to me to be totally two-dimensional. Any sense of depth, perspective or spatiality is absent. To me it is a very different kind of drawing.

 

Recent 'Picabian' compositions

These two drawings represent the most recent evolutionary stage in my life-drawing journey and are discussed in recent postings.

 

Random juxtaposing with Wren

Four drawings from Monday evening's virtual life session with Wren modelling.

[5x1minute; 2x10minutes; 1x20minutes; and 1x35minutes]

But first my reflective thoughts on how I approached the evening and the context of the experience:

• I seem to be going thro' a period of psychological ups and downs. I aim for tonight to be an uplift.
• Increasing anxiety about 'end of life'
• But, by contrast, What an amazing place and way-of-life to live on our small-holding on the hillfort.
• No conscious preparation for tonight - but when it came to it I decided on fine-liner pens and that I would keep with them what ever happened.

Then a particular approach suddenly arose  as the first pose appeared on my screen...........

just threw 'parts' at the paper in almost a random way, not considering how they juxtaposed with adjacent parts

• no sense of projecting parts into the space - no 3D spatiality concepts
• no sense this was a 2D collage excercise.

So, my recent reading of how Picabia's random juxtaposing of individual words, as he took them out of a hat to create a new sentence (see a previous posting) did have an impact upon my actions. But this was in no way a conscious recall - the idea of this process had clearly embedded itself within my sub-conscious - and it came out tonight.

I have just recalled how this Picabian approach is so much like, if not identical to a concept I became familiar with many years ago in my early life-drawing days. I am referring to Hans Bellmer. "The body is like a sentence that invites us to rearrange it" [this is the fundamental foundation upon which I experiment with my de-construction/re-construction process..........I look at the pose overall, home in on a part, translate this part to my paper, engage with the next part which attracts, and so on, and so on]

And tonight I believe that I employed no compositional criteria or rules to 'consciously' influence the relationship of the parts to each other on the surface of my paper or within the space within or beyond the edges of my paper. 

A further thought: I no longer think about/around my acts of mark-making. I have complete confidence in myself - the mark will be fine! This is another constraint which I have released myself from. I now know that the way I draw will be a legitimate echoeing of myself and of my perception/the way I am seeing, at the time, at the moment.