Entry for June 12, 2012

The cutlery was out on the Tuesday night in Revival's basement lounge, where the Keyhole Sessions ended up having their monthly session. They have been working a series of Seven Deadly Sins-themed evenings, and gluttony was the theme.
It was the kind of gluttony that involves cupcakes, champagne, ice cream and headdresses, worn by young women who don't have much amplitude of body, which, given the theme, seems a bit remiss. It was, nevertheless, a good drawing workout.
The basement setting meant that things were crowded for the assembled drawers, but that sort of added a clandestine air to the proceedings, which on reflection suits their mandate. The stage upon which the modelling occurs at these sessions does distance things, literally and psychologically.
The top two studies of A-   in a short chiton and ornate headgear were pinging allusions for me to Caravaggio and Renaissance imagery.  They are a 10-minute study above, and a 15-minute one below, both done on 18 x 24" sheets of bond paper with hard compressed charcoal.
Getting proportion and some degree of characterisation into the 2-figure studies of M-  and J-  was challenging - these were a 10-minute and a 25-minute study, both done with the same charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Drawing paper
The lowest 3-figure study was 45 minutes, and is done with the same hard Nobel charcoal on an 18 x 24" sheet of Maidstone rag paper that had been prepared in advance by working some powdered charcoal into it, mostly around the edges of the sheet. The top-right figure of A-  with cupcake is a little awkward, owing to rushing at the end of the time, and some proportions not quire meshing up, which I didn't have time to properly work out. Drawing multiple figures is a bit of a jigsaw-puzzle proposition: if one element is too large or small, neighboring figures won't line up where they need to, which is the proportion acid test.

3rd entry for June 11, 2012

( I'm teaching an 8-week beginner-level Life Drawing class that starts next Tuesday, July 3 at the Toronto School of Art.  It runs 6:30 - 9:30 weekly, and covers gesture drawing, contour drawing, proportion, light and shadow, and more. There is still room, but it is filling up...
You can get further info here.)
 
These are two 20-minute studies, done with Nobel hard compressed charcoal on 24 x 36" sheets of Durotone Extra White paper. The paper size was slightly unwieldy, but I am fairly happy with the upper study, which was a better than average portrait study, I felt.
After it, the last while went downhill for me, but some drawing days are like that. If one really strong study emerges out of an afternoon working with someone, that's great.
As it was, the experimenting with modelling distance was an interesting experience, and shook me up in a little in good ways.

2nd entry for June 11, 2012

These are, from the top, a couple of 5-minute studies, followed by some 15-minute ones. The 5-minute ones are on 18 x 24" sheets of bond paper, and the longer ones are done with hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Drawing paper.
I felt with the shorter studies that I've over-rendered C-   's face. She has a distinctive face, so I was interested in doing that justice, but there is a degree of detail that feels `right' with a short study if the rest of it is more loosely handled.
C-  continued to shift around, anywhere from a couple of metres away to well back in my space. Typically in a drawing session, I feel the `optimum' drawing distance is 4-5 metres from a person; much closer and I cannot fit them easily onto a page, but that does come at the cost of  more intense interpersonal connection, and how much close detail I can see. A person is much more `personal' when they are in closer proximity.

1st entry for June 11, 2012

On the Monday I got together with colleagues at my studio and worked with C-  . She was roaming the (admittedly small) space more than usual, which was what we were experimenting with. These are 1-minute studies, some close, some far. I think they are a little less formulaic than the usual gesture drawings I warm up with.
...and gesture drawing is one important part of what I teach in the 8-week Life Drawing intro class that starts next Tuesday, July 3 at the Toronto School of Art. It runs 6:30 - 9:30 weekly, and covers gesture drawing, contour drawing, proportion, light and shadow, and more. There is still room, but it is filling up...
You can get further info here.

2nd entry for June 8, 2012

These are 10-minute and 15-minute studies, done with hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of bond and Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

1st entry for June 8, 2012

On the Friday I was back at the TSA to do some sketching. C-   was working that night, and these are two 5-minute studies and two 10-minute ones, all done with hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of bond paper.

If you want to learn or refresh life drawing skills,  in July and August I'm teaching an 8 week course on beginning life drawing at the Toronto School of Art.
It runs Tuesday nights, 6:30 - 9:30.
For more information, check at the TSA website here.

5th entry for June 5, 2012

These are 10-minute studies, with the same materials as the last post. S-   kept the same ensemble, but I tried reworking it into more horror/fetish  territory for the final image. The direction a model's work suggests and the direction a drawer's imagination goes do not need to overlap, but to S-   's credit, his adopting some costume tweaked other image responses than him posing all undressed, and that's definitely a good thing.

This weekend (June 23 & 24 saw a very enjoyable open house at my downtown Toronto studio.  Thanks to all the people who came to visit. (There will be more, come the fall...)

4th entry for June 5, 2012

These are 5-minute studies; also compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. I had mixed responses to S-   's `biblical' wrap. In some poses it afforded a Schiele-y quality to his arm gestures. In others I liked the man-skirtiness it had.  But as the poses continued, I was getting restless, as that particular narrative notion of old-testament heavy didn't resonate much for me. In the 2nd last study here I skipped almost everything other than his flogger and arm, and in the last one I was beginning to re-imagine his wrap as a hell-raisery straightjacket/corset, with lots of buckles.

3rd entry for June 5, 2012

These are 3-minute (and maybe some 5-minute) studies of S-   .  All are done with hard compressed charcoal on sheets of 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper.
 

2nd entry for June 5, 2012

 

To vary things, S-  did further gesture poses in character referencing Holofernes, a mean old-testament general who meets his demise after drunkenly carousing with Judith.  These are 1-minute studies on the same size bond paper.
Trying to incorporate clothing, albeit simple, was a challenge in these very short poses, but it was a good stretch.

1st entry for June 5, 2012

I went back to S-   's drawing session at OCAD U on the following Tuesday night.  He delivered up more dynamic gesture poses. These 1-minute studies are done with hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of bond paper.

`Scribbly' gesture drawing like this is an important aspect of how I teach life drawing.
If you want to learn or refresh life drawing skills (including gesture drawing,)  in July and August I'm teaching an 8 week course on beginning life drawing at the Toronto School of Art.
It runs Tuesday nights, 6:30 - 9:30.
For more information, check at the TSA website here.

(A numerical footnote, this is post number 1600 for this blog)