Entry for Oct 9, 2012

On the Tuesday I got my practice in at the monthly fetish-themed Keyhole Sessions evening, the third-last one they are staging.  It was the last of their Seven Deadly Sins theme nights, and Wrath was the loose concept. Being the Keyhole Sessions, it was the kind of wrath that involved a lot of hair and clothes rending, rose destruction, some suggestion of corporal punishment and a tableau of vanquished aftermath. I felt they were a little more on-topic than usual, but narrative ultimately takes a back seat to the accessories in these.
Their first model Archean did try for angsty poses. The top two were generous 1-minute ones, followed by a 5-minute, 10-minute and 15-minute pose.
The 1's and the 5-minute kneeling pose are on 18 x 24" bond paper, the rest are on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper. All are done with hard compressed charcoal. She was wearing a slit black latex outfit which was a challenge to draw in the short time, but at least it was black.
Below that are a 10-minute and a 15-minute study of models Jacki and Miss Elle - trying to get down specifics of two people and costume and keep them in scale on small paper is an extra-tall order.
The final image is a 45-minute study done with soft graphite on an 18 x 24" sheet of 90 lb Maidstone rag paper that had a gray chalk underlayer. It's like Philip Pearlstein meets fetish, and I liked that. The foreshortened figure I always feel at home with. The models deserve major kudos for maintaining these without taking a rest. 45 minutes is a lot to ask someone to hold still for. Resetting would be a lot of work, but holding still that long without a stretch isn't good for a body.
I know it's somewhat obvious, but it continues to strike me that almost any of the poses people do here I have dealt with many times fully undressed in more `standard' life drawing sessions. But the context of the garments, rope and velvet/satin  fabrics that put them much more into erotic territory.
On the flip side, having a good grounding in `basic' observational life drawing can be an asset in drawing people in any situation, especially this one. You can get that practice Sunday nights from 6:30 - 9:30 at the TSA, for only $10 at their open life session. It runs at least until mid-November, so make the most of it.