Entry for March 24, 2009

Another late arrival at Artists 25. E- was working this time. I had time to do these 4 poses, all in the 15 to 20-minute range.
I have to admit that the study of E- with her shoe was, in actuality, quite distorted perspectivally. It was like an anamorphosis, with the top of the drawing really small & the bottom part way too big. Reversing the perspective effect in photoshop makes this a quite well-proportioned study. I was standing looking down at my drawing pad, rather than my usual lazy-man sitting, and wonder if the changed angle of sight on my drawing led me to wrongly 'perspective-compensate' what was being set down on the paper.

That or I was just getting bigger as I kept drawing.

Entry for March 22, 2009

I wasn't able to get to the Sunday night session until fairly late, but was able to put in a little over an hour's worth of drawing time. C- was working. She is a ballet dancer, which shows in her bearing & posture. These poses were all in the 15-minute range.

7th entry for March 19, 2009

The night concluded with these 2 10-minute poses. These, like all the others, are done with HB Conte crayon on 24 x 36 sheets of newsprint.

6th entry for March 19, 2009

These were 5-minute poses. I was settling into more of a 'working groove', and the music quieted as the show progressed.

There was one cheesy R & B ballad to deal with, which had some woman singing wispily about how she was "just about over being your girlfriend"...

Sigh. Maybe she could go away & discuss with Phil Collins about how he doesn't care anymore.

J- 's costume had stripey briefs, and it wasn't til these 5-minute poses that I had time to properly draw any of their detail at all.

5th entry for March 19, 2009

These were 3-minute studies. I was see-sawing between being in focus and losing that focus every few minutes. it may only be a personal perception, but I felt I was getting less information down in the time available than I have been doing in recent sessions at Diane's studio.
I decided that I liked the challenge of trying to keep in focus, since a couple of other drawers were clearly enjoying what was playing.

4th entry for March 19, 2009

More 2-minute studies. While doing these I continued wrestling with the music, but was getting adjusted. Also, the music shifted from more varied tempos to more steady latin & hip-hop rhythms, which was helping.

3rd entry for March 19, 2009

It was around this point in the evening that the radio switched to a new program, one that was playing quite punchy jazz-funk and latin music. Somehow, at least on this evening, this posed a real challenge to concentration. The music was interesting and lively - a little too interesting to tune out.

Whatever the case, where the earlier Irish reels were a nice steady tempo, as rhythms and tempos shifted, my mark-making kept jumping around. My dad knows a composer who once got thrown by an ocean's surf sounds because it was off-tempo to his inner timing. It made it impossible for the guy to write or sleep while on a songwriting retreat. I was feeling like that at first: dance to this - yes; draw to it - not in a flowing way.

It did occur to me that if I had been willing to let my marks run with the music, I might have discovered something unfamiliar and possibly useful. But for that night I just tried to maintain focus in spite of the music. These are 2-minute studies.

2nd entry for March 19, 2009

These were some more 1-minute poses. At this point - some 15 poses into the night - I was beginning to get settled into a drawing groove. J- was playing a lot with using the knotted silks as support points to hang from or balance off of.

1st entry for March 19, 2009

J- was working at Diane's aerial drawing session, starting with some poses on silks.
These were 1-minute poses or a little shorter.

2nd entry for March 17, 2009

These were 20-minute studies. Apart from his lying-down pose, it was his expression and countenance I wanted to set down.
It was a purely subjective response, but to me C- looks like he could be a member of some German or Scandanavian metal band. I think it is a combination of gravitas and artistic energy that he projects.

1st entry for March 17, 2009

Over at Artists 25 on the Tuesday, C- was working. He and I go back all the way to my first art school days at Arts' Sake Inc. I haven't worked with him for a few years, and we are both aging and deepening, I was feeling.
His face has a lot of character, so these 10-minute studies didn't get much past his shoulders.

2nd entry for March 13, 2009

The balance of the evening was these 15 and 20-minute poses.

1st entry for March 13, 2009

G- was working on Friday. I paid the price for missing her short poses- a lot of awkward, fussy starts. These 10-minute studies worked fairly well. The head studies are look good, but they are not spot-on likenesses.

5th entry for March 12, 2009

Bottom to top, theses are the last poses of the night- three 5-minute, one 10-minute and a 6-minute pose 'til the end.
I like how the silks connote the direction of pull and force that P- is exerting in these poses.