Hand and Foot: one hand and two hands.

This is a detail from one of my drawings from the 3 days at Niel Bally's studio over in Talgarth which I talk about in my previous posting.

[please click on it and take a good look]

It represents some aspects of the essence of the art of my mark-making. 

The hand is drawn with graphite pencil and some tonal shading is with charcoal. Firstly the very quick outline is suggested using 2H very light lines. A short length of willow charcoal, on its side, is moved across where darkness is seen, and is caressed and smoothly blended with my forefinger. A 6B graphite pencil then gives emphasis to these tonal areas, and finally the 2H is again picked up to complete the form. All of this mark-making is with my one hand, my (right) dominant hand. It is the product of a one handed drawing technique.

The foot is realised quite differently. This is the product of a two-handed drawing technique (which is now my usual and my comfortable way of seeing) and I have a fine-liner pen in each hand. There are a few very faint and lyrical lines which start my process of engaging the form to the paper. Heavier lines representing the main elements and shapes of the anatomy of the foot then go in. These start with both hands but gradually the dominant hand takes over whilst the pen in my left hand rests its point, unconsciously, on the paper (dots appear as evidence of this contact). This is an important aspect of my drawing process. Although at this stage my left hand is not drawing lines, it is still providing me with a tactile engagement with the surface of the paper, and is still helping my left hand (and so, the right side of my brain) a role in the making of the drawing, and contributes an important role in my holistic process of engaging with spatiality.

As anticipated: three enjoyably thought provoking days.

My previous posting introduced my looking forward to my 3 days over at Niel Bally's studio in Talgarth. I was not let down nor did I disappoint myself.

Niel attracts amazing people. Each reveals their own identity in their individual and provocative responses via a diversity of media. This context helps me to focus on what it is that is particular about my own art, my own process, my own way of seeing.

His studio has an ambiance of light, shared experience and communal endeavor which provokes creative responses to the poses which are each considered and discussed by everyone. Niel himself provides a continuous and exhaustive context of references to examples of the past masters of the art of responding to the human body with displays of images on the walls of his studio and access to a wealth of books on relevant artists:

There was an added bonus! Our model for all three days is Kate. I have had the privilege of drawing Kate over a number of years, and in different venues. With time, a dialogue between artist and model is established. This is a two-way connection. We talk of our shared interests not only in vegetable growing, in permaculture, and in other subjects, but also in the complexities, opportunities, enjoyments when in the life-drawing studio. So, I know Kate, I can look beyond my initial gaze, I am able to connect with her, a dialogue is already established and in place which I can easily latch in to, and freely start, unconstrained to make marks on my paper.

This morning I photographed my drawings and here they are. Lots to say about them, but I will need time in order to descend from the heights of my post-drawing feelings and give a considered self-critical response (So. Watch this space!).

The drawings are posted more or less in sequence in the order they were made. 

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I am now back and will go through each drawing and start writing my thoughts on them.................

Day ONE:

We started off with a number of standing poses of about 5 minutes each. I am deliberately touching the paper lightly with a fine-liner pen in each hand, and not revisiting a line. So what you see is my first touch and first exploratory response. Made the decision to include more than one pose on each A1 paper.

Then Kate reclined in front of a long horizontal mirror:

I can't really recall when this next drawing happened so it may be out of sequence. I was clearly attracted to the advancing foot. But which of the rest is a reflection in the mirror I am unable to say.

Kate then took up a seated pose, and you can see her reflection, and I had fun engaging with arms, legs, hands and feet.

Then back to Kate lying in front of the mirror. I regularly enjoy the challenge of engaging with a long horizontal pose (from left to right) and how to explore this and include it on an A1 portrait format. The pose has to be compressed in someway. Head and shoulders are brought in from the right, and the lower parts of the pose are brought in from the left, and the two overlap and are morphed together. This was the last drawing of the day and I just felt like a change from my purist line drawing approach, so out came the charcoal, and some very speedy graphite pencil hatching.

Day TWO:

Started with one of my usual deconstruction/re-construction games.

Then another mirror reflection drawing.

And again the use of the mirror, with Kate at 90 degrees to the mirror and her head towards me. One can get quite confused when bringing together the main pose with its reflection. Here the lower part of her left leg is a continuation from her left thigh. However, in my confused state I have introduced a bizarre spatial anomaly. It appears that the reflected body in the mirror is projecting its leg towards us. Quite bizarre. Something of a Magritte moment.

There are a number of reflections mixed up with direct images in this more complex construction, all drawn at different scales. So a continuation of recent aspects: overlap, transparency, superimpositioning, morphing, varying scales, spatiality, etc., plus weight of upper body supported by hand on plinth, plus advancing foot with toes to the fore.

And this, I really enjoyed standing back and viewing what I had created. A sort of landscape. A slow drawing, carefully compiled, lines and tonal work considered.

Day THREE:

My drawings from the first two days have their similarities and parallels in my past work. Nothing new really. So it would seem that the advantage (to me) of a third day is that I felt a need to do something different, and perhaps experiment a bit.

In this first drawing of day three I elected to draw the feet and their reflections with fine-liner pens (down the right hand side of the composition) and to contrast this with graphite pencil and charcoal in my exploration of the main body of the pose and its reflection. So two mark-making media in the one drawing. Kate's feet were each resting on a rectangular cushion, and the reflection of these in the mirror set up an interesting series of planes at varying angles. 

Echoes of Matisse, Picasso and Jenny Saville as the pose was explored with charcoal, then rubbed back, then explored again, and again rubbed back, and gradually the various parts of her anatomy moved back and forth until their eventual and acceptable location was found. I guess this process could have been repeated a few more times until a final refined outcome is achieved. 

The last drawing of day two (the landscape) and this next one stand out for me as the highlights of the three days. So, why this one?

To start with (as others remarked) the face is Kate! 

Then I have brought closer together the two halves of the figure. 

Then each half is treated differently. 

Her right side is drawn using graphite pencil and charcoal, whilst her left side uses fine-liner pens. 

I bring up her right leg, from toes to her groin, and superimpose it upon her upper body. 

The whole is fairly carefully considered. 

The outcome is NOT a product of a fairly speedy exploratory, emotive and intuitive and 'meditative' process.

We were getting to the end of day three. About 30 minutes remaining. Kate adjusted her chair position through 90 degrees. I was now viewing her side on. She was sort of resting against the mirror. A 2H graphite pencil in my dominant hand started outlining the form. It grew upwards off the paper. But I wanted to represent the full length and form of the pose. So at a reduced scale I tried again. Even then her knee and left foot could not be included. But whilst doing this smaller version I saw the reflection in the mirror of her hand resting on the arm of the chair. I then returned to the initial figure and put in the chair, which had already been included once. The lines of the frame of the mirror were added. All together an unusual drawing for me, one-handed, singular minimalist lines, but one that added to the diversity of responses in this third and final day.

At 'Exreme Poses' on November 24th, and an anticipation.

I am pursuing my recent lighter touch with my two-handed fine-liner technique and not returning to a line and going over it in order to imbue it with a greater emphasis and thereby creating variation in my marks and contrasts in weight of line. You will see that no new image on my paper has resulted from the morning's five poses and what changes, if any,  are presented here are simply part of my gradual evolutionary development.

The anticipation is to do with my looking forward to what might take place in my life-drawing journey in a day or two when I drive the 40 miles westwards into Powys to attend Niel Bally's studio over in Talgarth. Three days of concentrated and focussed life-drawing has in the past initiated unexpected movement in drawing technique, perceptual process, discovery of previously untapped creativity, and a confirmation that one's life-drawing journey has no destination, i.e. paths are made by walking.

This is me

A particular characteristic of my mark-making has been highlighted by both Paul Fowler and myself in a detail of a larger A1 drawing. Paul suggested he had not seen me draw like this before. I agree with him up to a point. But it is not unique. It has arisen before. Rarely. But when it has it is an outcome of a free, speedy, intuitive, unconstrained response by me, thro' my hands, via my pens, on to my paper.

So, here to start with is the drawing which Paul got so excited about. There then follows a number of cropped details which suggest that every so often I enter this very special place.

Hand and Face

Recently a face profile has been included in my drawings and often this appears with an accompanying hand. Sometimes they appear adjacently in the pose, at other times I juxtapose them as part of my reconstructive process. When this happens sometimes it is consciously done but more likely the relationship is part of an intuitively random event. Here are cropped details of these events from the past few months:

Drawing Paul on November 17th

Paul Boon is a professional Portrait & Life Model and is now a regular at Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' over in Stroud, England. He raises himself to the task of presenting challenging poses as he poises between the ceiling suspended straps and floor based plinths. He and Paul Fowler spend time discussing the potential offered by this unique stage. As a result people travel quite some distances to avail themselves of this stimulating and enjoyable three hour session of five 30 minute poses, on a Wednesday and Thursday mornings (I attend the Thursday session). From Malvern, Somerset and Wales life-drawers join with more local folk in what continues to be a fulfilling shared experience in which we all learn from each other.

A fairly straightforward start to the morning concentrating on his feet and knees which were at my eye level one metre away.

The strength of the arm supporting his upper body weight, his hand on the edge of a plinth. I was attracted by the folds of flesh at the elbow. Also attracted by the relationship of the foot to the edge of the plinth. So I latched on to a narrative of foot, hand and knee, and their relationships with plinth. An outline profile of his back helps integrate the composition.

I was unhappy with the heavy continuous lines in the first two drawings, and felt the resultant mark-making did not match how I wanted to be seen to respond to the pose. I have frequently claimed that my drawing is a record of my exploration of a pose and so my mark-making should say much more about 'process', i.e. 'how my looking helps me to see',  'how the drawing is made',  as opposed to the final drawing being a refined finished product.

So I very deliberately, with a fine-liner pen in each hand, set about exploring the shapes of the outline of the right side of the pose from his arm (at the top right) all the way down to the dangling foot. I then moved my attention over to his left side, but at a larger scale, because I wanted to engage with the folds of skin at the elbow, the veins pumping with blood, and the distinctive shapes of the fingers and thumb of the left hand. 

Then, I noticed that between his left arm and his thigh I could see his foot being supported upon a folded towel on a plinth. This then entered my composition, bringing in depth, perspective and spatiality.

My mark-making in this drawing is a product of a fairly speedy and exploratory approach, and one which I feel I want to indulge in, in the upcoming sessions.

Paul Fowler was amazingly enthusiastic about the dangling foot. He commented that he had not seen this before in my work. I too felt that here was a drawing (of the foot) which said how I see. And how I see, in an unconstrained, intuitive, sub-conscious way. [I will add at the end of this post a detail of this foot]

Finally, my drawings of poses Nos 4 & 5.

So, I have just focused in on the dangling foot.

There are a number of lines of different weights;

i.e. the first: quick, form exploring, lightly touching the paper,

followed by heavier focused intensities at the back of the foot and the heel,

then a final form mid-tone lines giving emphasis to the shape

[It all happened so quick. Is this a recollection of what actually happened? Is it a drawing of a foot?]

What I do know, is that I have a feeling that the process of its making, and the variety and diversity of line, are particular and special to me. Where I am in my life-drawing journey, at this moment in time, this detail announces.