2nd Entry for January 27, 2009

These are the two stronger 20-minute studies that I did of H- that evening. The last two crashed on the reefs of fussiness & fatigue.

1st entry for January 27, 2009

From the top down, these are one 10-minute pose, two 5-minute poses, and two 2-minute ones. H- was working at Artists 25 on the Tuesday. It was an upsy-downst evening drawing-wise, which peaked at the 10 minute & early 20-minute poses of the night.

2nd Entry for January 23, 2009

I had to slip out of part of the session to write a quick piece as part of a friend's exhibition, but was able to get back with enough time for these four 15-minute poses. It can be hard, making sure all the things that ought to be done get done some weeks.
It's nice when one can just get lost in the drawing. I really like that meditative aspect of the process when one is fully engaged.

1st entry for January 23, 2009

On Friday we had G- working at the TSA. He is someone else I hadn't had an opportunity to work with yet. (lucky thing, too, another male model to add to my roster) His poses were good, and he was a person on whom anatomical features were fairly easy to read, which is one of the things that I like.

These were 5- and 10-minute poses.

(In that regard, drawing G- on the Friday was an apt preamble to the Saturday & Sunday, when Z- and I went to see literally dozens of dance companies performing in a mini-festival at Harbourfront. It was, as Z- observed, applied anatomy, among many other levels of artistic expression)

7th Entry for January 22, 2009

The last 2 poses R- took were for 6 or 7 minutes hanging, and for 10 minutes lying on the ground. they capped off another really lively session at Diane's studio.

6th Entry for January 22, 2009

5 minute poses from the evening. In terms of joint protection, these poses (as well as the 3-minute ones) had to be better supported, with the silk straps acting more as hammocks in places. Still, lots of interesting weight support.

5th Entry for January 22, 2009

These 3-minute poses were among the better ones, having now gotten loosened up. (Some of these might be 5-minutes; I get a little overloaded during the drawing, and sometimes lose track of pose durations...) Having body parts extending out of frame adds drama, too. Also, there was time to better describe the web of fabric R- was suspending herself on.

4th Entry for January 22, 2009

2-minute poses. After the 1-minute poses, these seem so leisurely. But there is still no time to relax, and the challenge remains to see how much can be set down in the time available.

3rd Entry for January 22, 2009

These were 2-minute poses. The night was especially challenging, I found, trying to get all the support straps in, plus trying to get the foreshortening to work. I was working flat out. I fund if I let my attention wander at all, I would run out of time to set down a crucial hand or leg. As it was, details were being drawn in even as R- was shifting to another position.

2nd Entry for January 22, 2009

These 1-minute poses help to give a sense of the range of poses R- was taking.

1st entry for January 22, 2009

Back to Diane's Studio on Thursday- this week, R- was working. She was clambering around a set of 3 bands of silk fastened to common endpoints. This allowed her to hang all sorts of ways. These are some 30-second and 1-minute poses she took

2nd Entry for January 20, 2009

These were the two other 20-minute poses that worked well that night.

I had bought what I discovered to be an especially smooth pad of paper - almost like wrapping paper. At first I was excited by how creamily conte crayon was applying to it, but soon afterwards found that the downside was a propensity for things to g to blach really quickly.

1st entry for January 20, 2009

A 10-minute standing & a 20-minute back study of L- , who was at Artists 25 on the Tuesday night.

3rd Entry for January 18, 2009

This is a 1.5 hour study, drawn - as are the others posted here - on 24 x 36 sheets of newsprint using HB conte crayon. (wish they made an `H' grade...)

Earlier in the week, I had been feeling smug, and pontificating a bit about sticking out the session at Artists 25 with a male model, as there is often a noticeable dropoff when guys are working. So I felt a little bit awkward about picking H- over B- to draw on the Sunday morning (B- was working in the adjacent studio) My rationale was that I've drawn B- a few times lately, and haven't drawn H- in a while. ( yeah, right...). Nonetheless, if you've followed this blog then you've noticed the number of men represented is a lot smaller than the number of women, which is reflective of a tendency to book women more frequently. (Even at A25, the ratio is 2 female models to each male, and that's better than most places). I know at times I have perpetuated that bias, though for TSA classes I'm very committed to a 50/50 m/f split.

I had resolved to stay for the afternoon and draw B- . It was a pleasant surprise to discover that for the afternoon session his girlfriend J- was joining him. The juxtaposition of him undressed and her dressed was both striking and thought-provoking, in terms of gender dynamics. Their serious demeanour beside each other, and their both looking out - rather than at each other - reminded me obliquely of Grant Woods' "American Gothic".

It's a challenge to get two people to fit together in the same drawing, but that part worked out fairly well. Later, Z- was telling me that that is a fetish sub-category in its' own right, dressed women with undressed men. This particular afternoon didn't carry a fetish-y charge for me, but I can see how that can be a loaded scenario.

2nd Entry for January 18, 2009

These were 15-minute poses.