'beyond the act of drawing an object'

I sense that there is beginning to emerge, within myself, a sense of ownership of my life-drawing. Here is what I mean by this:  

• I no longer feel I am drawing an object.
• I no longer feel I am a separate entity from that 'person' who I am representing on my paper.
• I no longer 'consciously' battle with issues of composition, fitting it on the paper, and proportion, and I am oblivious to any attempt to accurately portray the model.
• If a preoccupation prevails it is 'mark-making'. I feel I want to make interesting marks. And I have discovered that charcoal has no bounds. It is infinitely explorable.
• Above all I am beginning to surprise myself by creating the unplanned and the unanticipated.
• I also feel that my work is beginning to have an identity which is particular and peculiar to me, although my researches find parallels from whom I can both draw inspiration but also further my own identity through a process of comparative analysis.  

I have entitled this posting 'beyond the act of drawing an object' and have already hinted of the current transformation in my life-drawing. 

For a few days now I have been drawing with both hands, simultaneously. 

It almost seems now to be the natural way to draw. 

Making marks through my left hand has challenged the life long conventions and sensations of drawing through my (usual) right hand. When I make marks through my left hand my right hand responds to the act of mark making in a different way from the usual  [I am still attempting to understand what is happening]. But I have concluded that by using both hands my 'whole self ' has entered the life drawing process and that I have become much more emotionally/intellectually and physically/tactily involved. In other words using both hands at once I am not only utilising both sides of my body but I am bringing into the process both sides of my brain. The implications of this I will be researching soon.

All drawings in this posting are on A2 cartridge paper. I am finding a significant benefit in using the smaller A2.

So here are 9 drawings from Tuesday June 19th at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley with the model Carol. 

    

The first three are warm-up quickies (fairly conventional, and I am not excited by them).

Then three drawings which build upon the two small 5 minute drawings from last week. I am attempting to minimise the time spent on each and concentrate on tonal contrasts. Each is drawn from a different position in the studio, and for the third I lowered my easel and sat down.

I like these very much. They seem to extract the essence of the pose, and I'm excited by the character of the mark-making

Then three more drawings of the same pose, from different positions and elevations.

For the last one above I felt a strong need to move away from charcoal (sometimes I feel I have exhausted the potential of a particular approach for the time being), and used the double pen technique with some added graphite stick to enhance the darker tonal areas.


Now to Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, with Dave high in the ropes. Whereas the nine drawings above were the output over the morning and afternoon sessions (6 hours with breaks) here my nine drawings were the output from the three hour morning session, with breaks and a long coffee chat.

All nine are drawn with both hands being used to make marks simultaneously. They are posted in the order they were drawn.

Mark Making: May into June 2012

The following 21 drawings are from 5 sessions of life drawing classes from May 24th to June 14th 2012. 

Upon reflection I believe they indicate a significant stage in the evolution of my pre-occupation with mark-making. 

I am uncertain as to why I have this pre-occupation. Yet I am fascinated by mark-making. It seems to me (at this moment in my life-drawing journey) to be a magnate of attention. I feel I can easily deal with composition, I can capture gesture, and I have become familiar with the medium of charcoal and how to manipulate its potential. 

So, it is:

how marks are made on the paper to represent the dialogue between artist and model, 

how marks are made on the paper to indicate the artist's perception of the form, 

how marks are made on the paper as a result of the emotive response of the artist to the model, 

how marks are made on paper to acknowledge the effort put in by the model in creating a particular pose, how marks are made on paper to take forward the exploration, the challenge, the uncertainty, and the potential of life-drawing, and 

how marks emerge on the paper in exploring the potential of the medium.

 Firstly, three poses of Robin high in the ropes at Extreme Poses in Paul Fowler's studio at Pegasus Art in Stroud. Charcoal on A1 cartridge paper.

Next, a fourth pose which turned out to be a real challenge. I attacked this many times on the same sheet of paper using charcoal and pencil, erasing and rubbing with fingers. This could turn out to be one of my most cherished pieces of work.

Here are two studies of Angela at Angela Palmer's studio in Brockweir in the Wye Valley. For me they illustrate techniques from my past. The first uses charcoal in a bold and confident way, emphasising tonal variation. The second incorporates pencil techniques and emphasises the use of cross-hatching to achieve tonal variation.

Now we go back to Extreme Poses with Robin in the ropes. A thin willow charcoal stick in my left hand and an HB pencil in my right hand - drawing simultaneously.

Below I introduce some tonal touches with a thick 9B graphite stick.

Here I am avoiding drawing lines and concentrating solely on tonal blocks with the 9B graphite stick and some charcoal to give emphasis. I do like the result: the feet come to the fore and the buttock disappears with the use of the soft-edge.

Here we are with Carol on the couch in Brockweir, and |I have a pencil in my right hand (my usual hand) and a stick of charcoal in my left hand. I attempt to use then simultaneously, but using the charcoal to give an emphasis to a journey up through the pose linking the deeper tones.

The above drawing was one of two short 10 minute poses at the start of the session which I placed on one A1 sheet of cartridge paper.

This is the main pose of the day. I positioned myself, standing at my easel, near the head of the model. I have  a charcoal stick in each hand. The one in my left hand (not my usual hand) tends to outline the main elements of the form, whilst the one in my right hand is short and thick and allows me to (more heavily) home in on the dark tone points of emphasis.

I felt I had achieved something of a breakthrough with the previous drawing in terms of mark making, and so as a distraction I moved my easel and did a more conventional charcoal drawing.

Then, back to a very similar position, and to the pursuit of holding a stick of charcoal in each hand and drawing with them simultaneously, but exploring how each can concentrate on and so emphasising different aspects of the pose.

We are now back with Robin at Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud.
Here I am beginning to realise the potential of the two handed approach to drawing.
We are in the infancy of this approach.
It has an amazing potential!

Here is a quick analysis before you look at these final drawings:
1. I draw with both hands at the same time.
2. Sometimes I have an identical charcoal stick in each hand.
3. Sometimes I contrast with charcoal in one hand and a pencil in the other.
4. My usual and dominant side is my right side, and it is with this I make firm and positive marks.
5. When I have a charcoal stick in my left hand I use it gently and sensitively so as not to break it, and this quality is transferred to the right hand, with correspondingly different marks with the right hand.

During the morning, Paul Fowler positioned the model high in the ropes, asked us to place ourselves beneath the model, either seated on the floor or on chairs, looking up, and gave us each a small piece of card. 

Here are my two responses.

Each incorporates lines drawn with the left and the right hand (whilst the other hand is holding the card up in the air).

Finally: And now for something different!
This may be a breakthrough.
For most of the drawings in this posting I have experimented with drawing simultaneously with both hands. Each has held a different medium, usually a contrasting charcoal and a pencil.
Here below I have a thin willow charcoal in each hand, but what is more significant is that I am attempting to equally balance the use of each, which means that I am attempting to balance the pressure on the paper and therefore the intensity and character of the mark from each.

This is something very new in my life-drawing journey.
Can't wait for the next developments.

Drawing Angela & Robin in the middle of May

The drawings posted today are in their chronological order of making.

On Tuesday May 15th I was at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye Valley.

Our model was Angela, from Hungary, who currently lives in Cheltenham.

The five drawings include short gesture poses and some longer ones.

I didn't get too excited with the above pieces so I played with my final drawing of the day. I started with the journey up through the right side of the pose from the foot to the head. I then turned the paper through 180 degrees and repeated drawing the same side of the body alongside the first drawing. I then made adjustments to produce an 'integrated' form.

On Thursday I am at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses in Stroud, and Robin is the model.
Robin is again up in the ropes but for some of the poses Paul has constructed a slightly different suspension system whereby Robin hangs from a single rope within a harness around her waist and bottom.

I have become completely oblivious of the ropes, and they play no part in my drawings. Sometimes the knotted junctions, and the cushion pads, obscure my view of parts of the body, but the omissions present no problem to me.

 The next drawing I have posted upside down. I rather liked playing with this bit of trickery.

This next drawing, in double pencil (two pencils taped together), has been turned through 90 degrees counter-clockwise. I just liked the resulting 'running' pose and the way in which the silken drape appeared to blow in the wind.

Drawing Robin on May 10th 2012

I think I hinted in my last two postings that as I entered the month of May I might like to take up a new direction in my life drawing journey. But not knowing at all what that might be.

This morning I felt quite a low in my self-esteem, and as I sat in the car and travelled with my life-drawing colleagues over to Extreme Poses at Stroud I had no ideas, whatsoever, how I might approach life-drawing today.

Last night I did put a few extra materials in my bag: some sepia acrylic ink, one or two brushes, and a water container. So I had something in mind: 'to add some fluidity to my drawing', perhaps. Also to introduce some colour work into my fairly extended period of monochromatic pieces in charcoal or pen.

And this, below,  is what happened.

I give no explanation. I offer no analysis.

But I really enjoyed myself. I think I surprised myself. 

My palette consisted of: 4mm and 20mm willow charcoal sticks, diluted sepia acrylic ink, small paint brush, rolled tissue paper, soft pastels, and two fineliner pens taped together. Used in various permutations.

All are drawn on 110gsm A1 white cartridge paper.

After photographing my drawings with a hand held Panasonic Lumix FS9 digital camera I use Adobe Photoshop Elements to crop the image so removing the edges of the paper from the image and also placing it within the rectangle (hence the variation in dimensions of the presented piece although most drawings are on A1 paper).

My photographic and computer skills are limited. One result of this is that the last two drawings above appear larger than the previous five. In fact they are nearer A2 in actual size, although the originals are drawn on A1 paper.