This is John: And I have worked on him.

December 13th at Claudia's Monday evening session in Monmouth, and I am drawing the long tall John who has amazing muscly limbs. I know him very well, as he has modelled at numerous venues I have attended over the years. So I don't have to think about how to address the session. Inbuilt in to myself is a store of my past responses to him. He is at least two, if not three or four years older, than last time. He is leaner, but he is still the John I remember.

Claudia initiated a number of quickie poses. Eventually we settled down and here is my drawing, compiled from selected parts of the two longer poses.

I have just spent the past two hours or so working on my original drawing. This was in fine-liner pen. But I felt I would enjoy transforming this line drawing into something more three-dimensional. This process went through a number of stages, each of which I recorded. So with layers of charcoal working, the original line drawing has been transformed into something more sculptural. I examined the photograph at each stage and looked for points that needed emphasis, and then went in with heavier marks with 6B graphite pencil and some compressed charcoal sticks.

If anyone would like to give me feedback, then perhaps the question I would ask is this: " Should I have stopped with the first drawing?"

 

My latest definition of my process

 

Reflections and Reflecting with Damaris

 A full day designed by Paul Fowler over at Pegasus Art in Stroud with the model Damaris. This was a return for Damaris to Paul's studio after an absence of many years, but I well remember her and my drawings of her. I looked them up the other day as I began to prepare fortoday following my amazing evening on Monday after which I felt I had witnessed a paradigm shift in my life-drawing journey. My previous drawings of Damaris took place in my squiggle period when I was first using a fine-liner pen in each  hand and exploring the forms on my paper with intense close packed squiggly marks. Today was bound to be different, but I had no plans tp what might take place.

So I was sure that I would be 'reflecting' on my earlier encounter with Damaris. I refer to 'reflections' in the title of this posting because in the theatrical setup created by Paul were placed a number of mirrors so that multiple images of Damaris would be presented for us to respond to, depending where one was positioned in the studio.

Here are my drawings. No comment at the moment as time will be needed for me to 'reflect' on what took place.

I've been here before. Or have I?

Many years ago I produced some very simple responses to the nude in front of me. Bold, confident line drawings enhanced with blocks of raw pastel colour.

I have selected two drawings from the additional work I did on my output from Claudia's Monday evening session, earlier this week, all of which is presented in my previous two or three postings.

What interests me is how can something come up which one feels also appeared a long time ago. Is there lying in wait a catalogue of responses and approaches which one then unconsciously draws upon? Or does the later hold something fundamentally, yet subtly, different from that which preceded it?

[I will do a search for those images from earlier times. As yet they are not available]

 

A magical session (Part 2)

 Following on from my previous posting I thought I would add an additional item which Claudia got us to participate in. At the start of her two hour evening life-drawing session she gave us all some folded paper and a small board to rest on. The paper was folded from an A2, so we had eight A5 panels to draw on. Sally then moved around and performed eight very short poses. Perhaps a minute or so each. We were asked to respond to each. So here are my eight instantaneous responses using a charcoal pencil. 

Very rarely do I pursue my art outside of a life-drawing session. However, I almost always place on my blog anything I might sketch (e.g. wilderbeest in Southern Africa, or self-portrait doodles from a reflection in my bathroom mirror). So here I have just worked a little on the eight initial drawings. What it all means I am not at all sure. What it contributes to my life-drawing journey, I do not know. Perhaps I will receive a response to throw some light on these questions.

A Magical Session

 Arriving home last evening after attending Claudia's life-drawing in Monmouth I sat down and emailed her. I just had to say thank you ASAP. I was clearly on a high. Still am this morning. So here is my email to her, and the two drawings referred to.

Hello Claudia,

Thanks for tonight!

Firstly for including the revolving pose, which I have done a number of times, as I see it as part of my cubism. Yet, this time, I was able to add an extra ingredient by including the four 'sides' at different scales. Not my intention, at all, so don't know where that came from. But it was a fascinating departure from what I anticipated.

Then came your most inventive idea of maintaining part of the pose as a constant but changing the other half thro' a number of alternative postures. This, for me, has caused a breakthrough moment in my life-drawing journey. I love it when this happens. It is what I live for.

The reason I keep going over to Stroud is that the norms of the traditional pose are removed and the path to encouraging an individual response in the artist is set up. This evening has been one of those very rare occasions where this has occurred elsewhere. So a huge thank you to you.  

I've just put my two drawings on the wall and have been sitting in front of them, trying to understand how they came about (I rarely do this so soon after a session) I can clearly see that some aspects are part of an evolving continuum, but there are others which will only be understood within the context of what appears on my paper in the coming months.

Best wishes

Bob

I am using a fine-liner pen in each hand to start with, then emphasising with a 4B graphite pencil. I love to click on each image and then move it around with my fingers to enlarge and explore the details of my mark-making. I still get excited when discovering my exploratory and contrasting marks. Drawn on 220gsm cartridge paper A1 portrait format.

Sally sat  curled up on a swivel chair and being moved through 90 degrees every ten minutes. So four views of the pose are included in this compilation.

Sally moved her upper body and arms between three different configurations whilst keeping her lower body constant. I was fortunate enough to be positioned above her head looking down the long perspective towards her feet.