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.

May 1st and May 3rd 2012

In putting together my posting of drawings from May 8th I've just realised that I have deleted my posting of drawings from the first two life-drawing sessions in May, along with some fairly extensive notes which describe and analyse their content. 

I don't feel like recalling what I said, so I'm just re-posting the drawings.

The first set are of Sue who is a model I have had the pleasure of drawing over about four years. This was at Angela Palmer's class at Brockweir in the Wye valley. 

Then follow three pieces of Paul up in the ropes at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses at Stroud. These seem to concentrate mainly on feet.

Drawing Penny on May 8th 2012

Three quick 5 minute poses to get started, using two 0.3mm fineliner pens taped together, drawn on an A1 sheet of cartridge paper.

Then on to the main pose for the day.
Two positions in the studio. Same pose.
Charcoal on A1 cartridge paper.
Quite a lot of tissue, brushing and finger work in playing with the charcoal.
Very enjoyable!

Drawing Paul on April 26 2012

Driving from Wales, over the border into England and the Severn estuary, to do life-drawing at Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses studio at Pegasus Art in Stroud is becoming a real highlight in my life-drawing journey. Each session seems to present something new to add to the vocabulary of concepts and techniques which contribute to the expansion, the development, the 'opening-up' of this wonderful world of drawing the human body.

So what happened today?

Paul asked that we look beyond the model and take on the model in its context. Yes (usually) we do focus on the model as 'the object'. What if the object is the space within which the model presides? So here is my drawing of the space as object. You will see: easels, radiators, ropes, shelves, etc., and the model suspended high up in the ropes. A composition evolved during the making of the drawing in that lines of easels and planes of walls began to converge and help draw the eye towards the model. But I don't believe that it was this which was significant.

I concluded that what was different was 'what I was experiencing' in producing the drawing, and not the drawing itself. What was different was my 'perception of the model'.  The body seemed to me to float in space much more. It seemed lighter and completely detached from any force of gravity. It seemed to have lightness and space around it but of which it was part.
Well, I've tried to explain my experience. So lets see what emerges both today and in the near future.

The question which should be asked is this: Are the drawings you see below any different from before?  My answer is: I don't think they are, but the experience of drawing them was different! Its about a change in perception. Its about a change in the psychology of making a drawing.

So, I won't say any more. Here are the drawings. Nothing new in technique or the drawing medium, but maybe something has changed. And that something is most likely to be within myself, and within the way I will approach and engage with drawing the human body in the future.

Drawing Tracey on April 24 2012

This is the second Tuesday with our new model, Tracey, at Angela Palmer's studio at Brockweir in the Wye Valley. The main seated pose is the same as last week, and we started with two 10 minute gestures. 

I enjoyed drawing these on the same A1 cartridge paper, and juxtaposing them. The dancing relationship which resulted is very pleasing. Angela has installed in her studio some ropes fixed to the ceiling and anchored to the floor. This allows the model to create poses which quite different to the more usual seated, lying or standing pose.

Here I use fineliner pen and charcoal.

I located myself in the same position in the studio as last week, but decided to lower my easel and sit, so this time I was not looking down on her shoulder and into her lap but as she was sitting on a high stool I looked upwards slightly towards her head. I started with the double pen and blended in some charcoal for the darker tone areas.

Below is my main drawing for the morning, so probably about an hour was spent on this. I again used the double fineliner pen technique. For the first time I was really able to explore the potential of concentrated pen work, and I like the result.

Now it is after lunchtime and again two more quick poses, juxtaposed.

For the main drawing of the afternoon I moved my easel, and resumed my usual standing position, and from my great height I again looked down towards the model.
I really wanted to capture her very sculptural form and in particular the strength of her thighs and the advancing sculptural quality of her knees.
Tonal contrasts were also a principal preoccupation in developing this drawing.

I enjoy charcoal. And although I am becoming fascinated with the potential of the fineliner pen, and with the potential of the finliner pen in combination with charcoal, I think I will always return to the use of charcoal alone, but constantly exploring the very tactile uses of this medium. By 'tactile' I am referring to the many ways in which charcoal can be manipulated: with the finger, with a brush, with a piece of rolled tissue, with an eraser, etc.

Drawing Angela on April 19 2012

I described in my last posting how I had gone to the life drawing class with a plan (with the expectation that I would progress into a new way of working), the plan didn't work, and I tended to revert back into a comfort zone of known techniques. So two days later it was with a tremendous relief and extreme excitement that the totally unexpected suggestion, made by our tutor Paul Fowler at Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud, propelled me into a new experience of drawing, of mark making and of output. Right at the start of the morning he asked us to tape together two pencils, perhaps an HB and a 4B, and to draw making two parallel lines of marks. Immediately I realised I was creating a type of drawing and a character of mark making which I had been attempting in the past, but more significantly it strongly related to my (failed) plan of two days ago. Quite a coincidence!. The result using pencils is the first drawing below.

For the second drawing I taped together two fineliner pens, 0.3mm and 0.8mm. The beauty of this method is that twice as many marks are made, and twice as many lines are drawn. There is introduced an increased intensity to the drawing making process. The two pens can make marks at the same time or alternatively one pen can be used then a very quick change can be made to the other, and back again as different thicknesses of line are required.

Below I taped together two Derwent tinted charcoal pencils ('sand' and 'natural') and because of their marked difference both in colour and tonal value I felt it more appropriate to use them alternately moving from dark to light as required rather than both together (if you see what I mean).

Finally I taped together a 0.8mm fineliner pen and a thick graphite stick, and again felt the best way to utilise their potential was to use them alternately as required.
Two drawings of the same pose, the first on A1 and the second on A2.

I'm very grateful for Paul's innovative proposal. I can see it holds great promise and I shall be experimenting with this approach again.