Our model today is Paul Boon:
Instantly, this demanded a response which my fine-liner pen approach would not acknowledge. Rounded sculptural shapes presented themselves, the lines of toes at the ends of the feet, sat upon by the curves of his buttocks. Willow charcoal outlines, mapping out the forms, then caressed with my fingers, and then the tonal contrasts explored with heavier inputs.
I've been here before! Such excitement! The weight down the arm on to the hand on to the edge of the plinth. I'm aware of the muscle forms within the arm and try to respond to them.
I like to believe that having engaged with a tonal response (the two previous drawings) that my linear line-making approach has benefitted.
A variety of responses seemed to be emerging this morning, and was furthered by my picking up two graphite pencils for this next drawings in which the leg supported on the plinth attracted my attention as the drawing process evolved, and I then attempted to give it an emphasis, within the inclusion of other parts of the pose.
As usual, my feeling is that the full dimension of the pose is too great to capture within the confines of a single A1 drawing. You can see, I am sure, the form of the pose. But I wanted to include the amazing and complex set of skin folds around his elbow. So I accepted that I would be employing two or three different scaled drawings within the eventual composition. But how many are there? We have the head peeping over the shoulder......the curve of the back coming down to the buttocks.........the underside of the one foot, sat upon, but not by the bottom as drawn............then there is the elbow, huge, dominant as a form in the composition, but coming forward, recorded in greater detail, like one of those exploding anatomical highlights in Michaelangelo's Sistine figures.
