3rd Entry for December 20, 2008

These were 10-minute poses.

2nd Entry for December 20, 2008

These were 5-minute poses.

1st entry for December 20th

I was back at the TSA on the Sunday night, for what would turn out to be the final drawing session of the year for me. G- was working. These were some of her 1-minute gesture poses.

7th Entry for December 18, 2008

The evening finished with 2 poses that were a little under 10 minutes each. I think these were the two of them, but one of the ones I've listed as a 5-minute pose may have been switched around. Guess I'm going to have to start making a time notation- it's hard to keep the various poses completely straight after the fact.

I do post a lot of the studies from these evenings. Not all of them are the strongest studies. But even those ones where the drawing is weak, the poses are almost all a little different from other situations I've drawn, so I want to share the record of them. Performance is ephemeral, and a drawing is a different way of recording than a camera. Hopefully a little more empathetic.

These, like the others, are drawn with HB conte crayon on 24 x 36 sheets of newsprint.

In theses longer poses, the silks are like dual slings. As another of the drawers noted, it alters the dynamics of a sitting pose when the tension of support is coming from abve, rather than from the body's contact with the ground. I guess implicit in all of these suspended poses is the possibility of their collapse. Many poses mount resistance against the law of gravity and what most of us understand as its' dictates.
The parallel vertical straps make a visually striking element, partially framing the figure.

You can find almost all the studies posted from the other sessions I've attended at Diane's studio on this blog and on the Yahoo 360 precursor if you search the tag "circus arts".

6th Entry for December 18, 2008

These were 5-minute poses. Where some of the other performers who have worked at Diane's studio spent more time completely off the ground, A- made good use of interaction with the floor as a part of her poses.

With the relative luxury of 5 minutes to draw, there is more time for shading & anatomical specifics. In my mind, though, the movement and spontaneity of a fast gesture pose underlies the longer drawing, in an intuitive way. I believe gesture studies, among other
things, instill a `muscle memory' of the proportions of body parts to one another, and how they move & bend.

5th entry for December 18th

Some more 2- and 3- minute poses, and a 5-minute pose. A- was experimenting with different ways & locations of support - neck, shoulders, waist, legs, etc.
Having the 2 silks hanging down meant there were a lot of options in terms of levels. One thing that impresses me is how one can wrap the silks around a limb and use the tension to support it.

These sessions are different from an aerial act inasmuch as they are more about the static moments, rather than the transition from position to position. When I'm drawing, I use the moments it takes the person to move as extra shading time. In a circus performance, there are the 2 sets of aesthetics on display: movement throgh space and static poses.

4th Entry for December 18, 2008

These were 2- and 3- minute poses. After 10 30-second and ten 1-minute poses, having 3 minutes seems like tons of time, but is a short enough time that relaxing and slowing down is a tactical error. If you start slowing down, the person is moving way before you're ready for them to.

3rd Entry for December 18, 2008

These were 2- and 3- minute poses. At the Drawing room sessions, it's always a sprint to try to record the action taking place. After the fact it can be hard to be sure which poses were which exact duration.

2nd Entry for December 18, 2008

These were 1- and 2-minute poses. The equipment for that evening was two bands of silk, set a little over a metre apart.

A- seemed to be someone who might have some yoga experience, as she was able to sustain extended horizontal positions without sagging at all.

1st entry for December 18th

At Diane Mcgrath's Drawing Room Studio, A- was working. These were some 30-second poses.

4th Entry for December 17, 2008

For the last 2 poses of the night, which were 25- and 30- minutes, I tried some heavy acid-free mayfair paper that another drawer had on hand. He was dissatisfied with its' smoothness - a quality I presently like in papers. A smooth surface yields a finer-grained gray tone when the side of a piece of conte is swept across it.

The paper was okay, but only about 65% as big as the newsprint pads I favour these days, which was a constraint.

3rd Entry for December 17, 2008

These were some 10- and 15- minute poses. M- would have been an ideal model for Spanish paintings of ascetic monks, or for Egon Schiele.

2nd Entry for December 17, 2008

These are a few 5-minute studies. 5 minutes is a tricky span of time- too short to get a lot of additional information into a drawing, but long enough to want to try.
Some of the 5-minute poses that night didn't work out.