Tony Tribe is starting his Saturday life-drawing sessions after the two year break due to Covid. Arts Alive, renamed Peak, no longer accommodates him, so he has found a village hall in Llanbedr just a few miles from Crickhowell.
It was good to meet up with the group who I had come to know over the previous years. Our model was Martin Woodford whose wife Jacquie I have frequently drawn over the years. Together they are 'Llandogo Life'.
Martin is a real pleasure to draw. he is lithe and muscly and holds poses well.
Did his left side then moved my easel and did his right side.
This is likely to be one of my most outstanding drawings, if not the most outstanding drawing, of this year (we will have to wait and see).
Why? Let's have a go:
a) the triangular composition fits well on the paper.
b) his lower and middle back (a solid) also becomes a space which he is looking in to.
c) the left arm with his hand on his thigh went in first. Then the profile of his right side went in, but the two sides were brought close together.
d) I moved my easel position from left to right on more than one occasion, so allowing me to:
(i) draw the tensioned right foot from two opposing positions.
(ii) see the hand resting on the knee which was not on view from my initial easel position.
(iii) see both his face and the back of his head but from different positions.
(iv) finally the side view of his foot appeared, and I eventually found space at the bottom of the drawing to include it.
We have: 'ambiguity' solid becomes space (void), space becomes solid, a Magritte moment (a concept I have already suggested in a previous posting)
We have: seeing the same part from different positions simultaneously, this is my Cubism.
We have: parts of the pose drawn at different scales, in the same drawing.
We have: a collage, yet a cohesive triangulated composition.
This is a two handed drawing, using fine-liner pens, on an A1 220gsm white cartridge paper
The two legs, from their thighs down to their feet, were probably where I should have stopped. I sat back and enjoyed the quality of linier mark-making and how I had engaged with Martin's extraordinary gnarled muscly forms. But I wanted to go further, and perhaps explore my Picabian superimposing and transparency.
So the upper part of the pose went in over the legs, with his head supported by his left hand and his right hand resting down upon his knee. I can now see that my mark-making in these two parts to the drawing are of a differing character. Following a few light exploratory lines the legs are drawn with singular confidence. Whereas the later upper part of the pose is drawn with a more frenetic use of the pen.
