Starting the session with some quick poses

Many of my postings start with a drawing in which I have entered a process which gambles on the sequence of arrival of the poses and gambles on my skill in anticipating a meaningful composition.
Just come across this Raphael. I will study it. Will it inform my approach? Maybe? But, I will enjoy it!

Drawing Paul at 'extreme poses'

The first drawing follows on from my excitement of last week at 'extreme poses' when drawing Shelley that I was witnessing, or maybe just detecting, the emergence of a new move in my art. Line and colour are similar. BUT the big difference is that today I have introduced a challenging new dimension. I have placed a darker tone to the areas of highlight. I suppose I am drawing a negative. This was amazingly challenging and quite confusing, but I feel that this challenged me to look more deeply and as a consequence was seeing things beyond my usual depth of perception. I aim to pursue this approach to discover whether it can add to my perception and my understanding of what I'm looking at, and to see what change may take place in my drawings. This 'negative' approach was followed in the first two drawings. The third drawing reverts to my usual quick response to an exciting anatomical dynamic in which light and tone are dealt with in a conventional way. In other words I just did this response without any 'conscious' thinking.

Five drawings of Shelley at 'extreme poses'

Thursday morning June 8th at Paul Fowler's 'extreme poses' at Pegasus Art in Stroud. The first two seem to herald a new move.

Drawing Andrea (to be viewed with the previous posting)

Just realised I posted my drawings of Andrea from June 13th not having posted those from the previous Tuesday, June 6th. So here they are. Starting with four 5 minute poses on the one drawing.

Then a focus on the bottom and legs. I was immediately attracted by this part of the pose but as I entered the process it became clear to me that the overall pose had great attraction also, so I brought the two together.

After coffee for the remaing 45 minutes, from the same position, I superimposed a drawing of the head and shoulders upon a drawing of the middle part of the pose upon a drawing of the lower legs and feet. These were in lightly drawn outline to start with, then I introduced tone to points of light/dark contrast, and then worked the drawing up with some heavier lines until the final 'new'  form emerged and had some clarity.

Perspective, foreshortening and looking up the leg.

June 13th with Andrea. This pose is repeated from last Tuesday. I relocated slightly to my left so that I could take advantage of the challenging perspective and the foreshortening possibilities of looking up the line of the pose from the advancing foot toward the distant head. I sat and lowered my easel to heighten the perspective and foreshortening experience.
Graphite pencil with Derwent tinted charcoal on A1 220gsm cartridge paper.

Parts of four poses

Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don't. I selected a part of each of four 5 minute poses. The artist has no influence on the poses so it is always something of a gamble whether the final drawing has any inherent compositional quality.
Model is Andrea and we are at Angela Palmer's life-drawing at Brockweir in the Wye Valley on Tuesday morning June 13.

Two male nudes after the Veneto

I am not claiming that ten days in the Veneto indulging in Giotto, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Piranese, and the architecture of Andrea Palladio and Carlo Scarpa, and the sculpture of Canova, and the awesome cities of Verona, Vicenza and Padova, and the elegant wines of Soave, have had an influence on my humble art, but these are my responses to two male models, firstly at Angela Palmer's at Brockweir then at Paul Fowler's at 'extreme poses' in Stroud.