2nd Entry for Sept. 22, 2011

These are a 5-minute study above, and two 10-minute ones below, also done with Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal on 18  24" sheets of cartridge paper.

This Saturday night (Oct 1) will be Nuit Blanche in Toronto. As part of that, the Toronto School of Art will be having a free drop-in drawing session on the 2nd floor of the Levack Block, at 88 Ossington Ave. (1 block north of Queen, just north of AWOL gallery). It will run from 7 PM to 4 AM, and will have clothed models working with themes of travel and correspondance.
Come by and do some sketching, space allowing! Or check out what people are up to.

1st entry for Sept. 22, 2011

On the Thursday, A-  was working. These are 1-minute studies, done with medium grade Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

This Saturday night (Oct 1) will be Nuit Blanche in Toronto. As part of that, the Toronto School of Art will be having a free drop-in drawing session on the 2nd floor of the Levack Block, at 88 Ossington Ave. (1 block north of Queen, just north of AWOL gallery). It will run from 7 PM to 4 AM, and will have clothed models working with themes of travel and correspondance.
Come by and do some sketching, space allowing! Or check out what people are up to.

3rd Entry for Sept 20, 2011

These are another 20-minute and a 10-minute study below that ended the evening.  Both were done with medium-hard Koh-I-Noor charcoal sticks on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

2nd Entry for Sept. 20, 2011

These are 20-minute studies, using medium Koh-I-Noor charcoal sticks on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.
At the time, I felt that the head in the upper study was one of the better ones I've done of S-   . The one below, on the other hand; not so strong.

1st entry for Sept. 20, 2011

On the Tuesday night, somewhat recovered from the Queen West Art Crawl/ Blue Moon art hanging of the prior weekend, I went over to Artists 25. S- was working. My drawing was fairly rough at first. I was using the hard Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

From the top, these are two 2-minute studies, a 5-minute one, and two 10-minute ones. You can somewhat see the drawing coming into focus over that 1/2 hour of working.

1st entry for Sept. 16, 2011

The Friday was my last opportunity to work on a submission for the Five Lovely Guys exhibition "Twice in a Blue Moon", which was being hung on the 18th. We had the challenge of doing work on 1' x 2' plywood panels. I had an idea of revisiting my childhood flirtation with woodburning. I used the 10-minute charcoal study of J-  below (from Oct. 28th) , and used a woodburning tool to more or less replicate the original image, which suited the long, skinny format of the wood panel. The image did change,, but it was fun to use the tool, which generated a mark much like a multi-ridge engraving tool.

The panel is up as part of the Blue Moon show, along with a charcoal torso study of M-  for much of this month. The Blue Moon is just East of Broadview on Queen St E, and opens daily after 4 pm. Early in their evening is a good time to check the show out, before the bar gets too active.

Right after the 3 hours I spent burning in this image, I went back to setting up for the next 2 days' Queen West Art Crawl.
It has been less than a fortnight since the 16th, but what a busy time it has been. I marked my 50th birthday, worked on the presentation/installation of two art shows I had work in, attended the openings of them and one other exhibit that included a piece of mine, and taught 5 classes. Mercifully, few periods are quite that fully loaded.

1st entry for Sept. 13, 2011

In most public life-drawing settings, an overtly sexual context is something organisers work to avoid.  In the wake of the more playful costume undertakings of the Dr. Sketchy's sessions, I checked out the once-monthly Keyhole Sessions drawing session. They are the exception, in aiming quite overtly to situate people into a deliberately sexualised context. Although not the aim of most figure drawing as a learning experience, that is a component of adult human experience. 

The crowd was, as I had found the one other time I visited that group, not at all the old man, `plastic mac' audience , but rather a lot of chatty, younger, hipper men and women, by and large.

These are a page of 1-minute studies and a couple of 10-minute studies of A- in a latex skirt & corset, and a 30-minute study of A- and A-L.  All were done with Prang U-Art hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

4th Entry for Sept. 11, 2011

These are a 10-minute study above, and 15-minute and  a 20-minute one below. All are done with Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

Some work of mine and my Thursday night art compatriots, under the moniker "Five Lovely Guys" will be up on display through the next month at the Blue Moon  pub.
There will be a celebratory party there this Saturday, Sept 24 from 7 pm onwards. Unfortunately, I will only be there for the first hour, but through the night there will be performances by 5LG affiliates- Anne-Marie Hood and Anupa Perera; Michelle Rumball; and Murray McKay will be performing with his Klezmer band.
All this joy and will only cost you $5 at the door, so come say hi, hoist a beer and enjoy great music and lovely company.

5th Entry for Sept. 11, 2011

 

These are 15-minute studies, done with a mix of hard and medium-grade Koh-I-Noor charcoal sticks.
The hard gives a smoother-grained shading tone, but lacks a bit of dark value `oomph', while the medium is a mite too grainy.
I thought a mix of the two might be the best of both worlds.

For those of you with a desire to get more experience in life drawing for yourselves, I teach introductory life drawing Saturday mornings at the Toronto School of Art.  The Saturday morning class will begin Sept 24th.  There's still a little time left to enroll for it- it's course  # 902.

3rd Entry for Sept 11, 2011

Above are two 5-minute studies and below is a 10-minute one. These are all done with the harder grade of Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal.

Some work of mine and my Thursday night art compatriots, under the moniker "Five Lovely Guys" will be up on display through the next month at the Blue Moon  pub.
There will be a celebratory party there this Saturday, Sept 24 from 7 pm onwards. Unfortunately, I will only be there for the first hour, but through the night there will be performances by 5LG affiliates- Anne-Marie Hood and Anupa Khemadasa; Michelle Rumball; and Murray McKay will be performing with his Klezmer band.
All this joy and will only cost you $5 at the door, so come say hi, hoist a beer and enjoy great music and lovely company.

2nd Entry for Sept. 11, 2011

M-  was back that evening, and so was I. These are 1-minute studies, done with Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

For those of you with a desire to get more experience in life drawing for yourselves, I teach introductory life drawing Saturday mornings at the Toronto School of Art.  The Saturday morning class will begin Sept 24th.  There's still a little time left to enroll for it- it's course  # 902.

1st entry for Sept. 11, 2011

On the Sunday, I was a bit weary, but determined to investigate an idea for an upcoming show, where members of the Five Lovely Guys group each undertook to do some work on 1' x 2' panels of plywood.
The upper study is a 20-minute warm-up study of M-  (not the best likeness, though) on an 18 x 24" sheet of cartridge paper.
The lower one is a 1.5 hour study on sanded and gessoed plywood. Both are done with Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal.
The panel is now hanging at The Blue Moon pub on Queen St E, just past Broadview, as part of the Five Lovely Guys "Twice in a Blue Moon" exhibit.
There will be a party there on Saturday, Sept 24 from 7 pm onwards. Sadly, I will only be there for the first hour, but through the night there will be performances by 5LG affiliates- Anne-Marie Hood and Anupa Khemadasa; Michelle Rumball; and Murray McKay will be performing with his Klezmer band.
All this joy and will only cost you $5 at the door, so come say hi, hoist a beer and enjoy great music and lovely company.

5th Entry for Sept. 8, 2011

These two 20-minute studies finished that evening.  Both were done with the harder-grade Koh-I-Noor compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

For those of you with a desire to study art, the Toronto School of Art's fall term has only just begun last week.
I teach introductory life drawing Saturday mornings (course  # 902). The Saturday morning class will begin Sept 24th.  There's still a little time left to enroll for it. 
As well, the  Intermediate life drawing on Wednesday nights (course # 832), and a more exploratory drawing class (Drawing 2) have only seen one week elapsed.  You can get more details about all the school's course offerings and registration info here.)

4th Entry for Sept. 8, 2011

(This weekend, I'll be out with some drawings at the Queen West Art Crawl, in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Saturday & Sunday, 11 - 6 PM daily. I'm at Booth D16
For my artist profile, you can check here. As well as some of the Biomandala series pictured there, I'll have some of the best of last year's figure studies on Japanese paper.)

These are both 15-minute studies, done with the harder grade of K-I-H charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

For those of you with a desire to study art, the Toronto School of Art's fall term is just beginning this week.
I teach introductory life drawing Saturday mornings (course  # 902) and Intermediate life drawing on Wednesday nights (course # 832), and a more exploratory drawing class (Drawing 2) as well.  You can get more details about the school's many course offerings and registration info here.)
The Saturday morning class will begin Sept 24th, so still a little time left to enroll for that.

3rd Entry for Sept 8, 2011

These are 1-minute studies, done after a long break, using Koh-I-Noor medium charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

2nd Entry for Sept. 8, 2011

(This weekend, I'll be out with some drawings at the Queen West Art Crawl, in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Saturday & Sunday, 11 - 6 PM daily. I'm at Booth D16
For my artist profile, you can check here. As well as some of the Biomandala series pictured there, I'll have some of the best of the year's figure studies on Japanese paper.)


Above is a 5-minute study, and below are two 10-minute ones, all done with the harder grade of K-I-H charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

For those of you with a desire to study art, the Toronto School of Art's fall term is just beginning this week.
I teach introductory life drawing Saturday mornings (course  # 902) and Intermediate life drawing on Wednesday nights (course # 832), and a more exploratory drawing class (Drawing 2) as well.  You can get more details about the school's many course offerings and registration info here.)

1st entry for Sept. 8, 2011

On the Thursday I was back at the TSA, where I continued exploring using the Koh-I-Noor charcoal sticks. These are 1-minute studies on 18 x 24" sheets of bond paper.