The Muse and the Lay Figure

I am attending Paul Fowler's three day summer life-drawing session at Pegasus Art 'The Lay Figure and Model'.

You can find out all about Paul's engagement with history of the lay figure and how he acquired a number of mannequins, and the paintings he has produced from this engagement. They are quite extraordinary! See: www.paulfowlerstudio.co.uk/lay-figures/

During the three days we had two female models who posed together, and sometimes individually, within the usual context of suspended ropes and plinths, but this time with a number of  clothed mannequin lay-figures permantly seated. So, one could choose which parts of this theatre of 'live' and 'lay' to respond to. I became so fascinated with the idea of exploring the concept of 'dialogue between two bodies' that I neglected (except in one or two drawings) the role that the lay could play in the process. Two female nudes, interplaying, suggesting a narrative as they related their bodies together, contrasting in their personality and form, presented a challenge which I was unable to avoid.  As an outcome there is minimal reference to the lay figure.

I have attempted in the following postings to group together drawings which illustrate my engagement with specific themes. These are not pre-planned. I have reviewed my output, analysed and placed drawings within themes and genres which I myself have categorised. This is all part of an on-going process of self-analysis and self-criticism which I have pursued over the years and has formed the fundamental framework of this blog.

The Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 1

The essence of Paul's intention?

 

I say this because I included the heads of two of the lay figures as well as drawings of a model. I brought into play the lay figure and the muse, and their juxtapositioning  incorporates a number of issues which I shall attempt to talk about below.

The fine-liner pen drawing of the model flying into the distance, peeping over her arm, with her feet exaggerated went in first. Then in line with my recent explorations of including two different scales in the one drawing I responded to the seated pose with graphite pencil and charcoal, so also incorporating two ways of mark-making. 

I am warming to this drawing more and more as time goes by. There are many aspects which I am pleased with:

a) the range of contrasting mark-making which is given emphasis by the simple confident fine lines of the heads and garments of the lay figures,

b) the perspective, foreshortening and exaggeration within the drawing of the horizontal pose,

c) the real feeling of support acting on the body as the seated figure rests her upper body weight upon her right arm and her right buttock bulges as it is given support by the plinth,

d) a straight line occasionally enters my compositions, and usually represents the plinth when included and particularly when I wish to explore weight and gravity as described in c) above. But here I feel the weightlessness of the figure supported in the ropes (I rarely draw the ropes, and am never really conscious of them) both contrasts with and at the same time emphasises the weightiness of the seated figure and the roles that gravity and the plinth play in forming the body shape (it is strange that generally I ignore the effect of the ropes on the body, but like to engage with the impact of the plinth …… however the point to make here is that I believe the inclusion of a straight line offers a contrast to the curvilinear line and helps emphasis this characteristic of the human anatomy),

e) and finally the recognition that a model has a face. Usually if one includes the whole face then the beholder often focuses on it, and it becomes a distraction from engaging with other aspects of the pose. I avoid a face being two eyes, a nose and a mouth. One may end up with the suggestion of this but in fact the face has been explored not as a separate feature but as part of the exploratory set of marks which have appeared on the paper during the making of the drawing. In attempting to come up with a concluding comment on the role of the face I have taken another long look at this drawing and have just realised that I have included a trilogy of partial faces, none of which are fully frontal. Seen from the side or looking upwards to a part of each face has given them a secondary role in the drawing but significantly, in compositional terms, they form a triangle within which all the action takes place.

The Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 2

Simply morphed.

Two fairly quick drawings, mostly two-handed, in fine-liner pen with some tonal touches using tinted charcoal lightly caressed with a finger.

Firstly the two models posing back to back and suspended in the ropes. I moved them together in my morphing process and gave little indication of their backs. In doing so I tried to identify their contrasting physical characteristics. 

 

For their next pose they lay across the studio using the full length of the suspended harness. Perhaps I wanted to explore the full length of this wide landscape of bodies as I turned my paper through ninety degrees from its usual portrait format. Even then they were not going to fit on the width of the paper. So, without hesitation, another morphing process was entered into. From a form in which only their feet touched and overlapped I moved them together and their hands, which were each holding on to a different strap or rope, appeared to grasp together and buttocks and foreshortened thigh merged into each other. 

As discussed in 'Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 1' a partial engagement with the faces ensures that the eye of the beholder will roam over the paper and dwell on the artist's intention, the mark-making, and perhaps the overall composition. But I do enjoy studying and evaluating the way I have addressed each face and head in this drawing.

The Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 3

Double model with two-handed fine-liner pen.

The Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 4

Double model in graphite pencil and charcoal.

The Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 5

Almost abstract ........... and I'm having difficulty working out and recalling the poses, except to note that there are two models and I did move around the parts I was interested in drawing with superimposition playing a leading role in the second drawing.

The Muse and the Lay Figure: Nos 6

Two poses, same model.