Entry for March 5. 2013

(Starting in a week, you can be doing an anatomy for artists class with me for 11 weeks at the Avenue Road Arts School, on Friday afternoons. More details here - sign up fast for that.
If you've never done any figure drawing and want to try it out, I'm teaching an 11-week intro class there on Wednesday evenings, also starting in about a week. Details on that here.  Better act right now...)

On the Tuesday I went to the AGO for some morning drawing as well. Jacqueline was working that day.  Some of their sessions are held in their gallery spaces, which limits the materials allowed to graphite. The session was in the studio where there is a large Franz Kline painting on the back wall. Seeing Kline's bold black and white brushwork takes me back to school at Arts' Sake, and the gusto and energy of mark-making that many of my teachers there pointed to, using abstract expressionists as exemplars.
Working with soft graphite on small paper it is harder to achieve that kind of boldness, and my interest was in the play of light and shadow on Jacqueline's forms, and establishing a likeness. Still, having the Kline there made me dig a little deeper for marks to use.
For me, graphite is challenging that way; I can get fine--grained gradients of light/dark, but it mostly lacks the bottom end of dark values.
All of these are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper, using soft (8B) graphite woodless pencils.

Entry for March 4, 2013

I had a bit of early time free on the Monday, and went over to try out the open session at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Corinne was there, and there are a couple of 5-minute studies, a 15-minute one and two 25-minute ones.
All are done with soft graphite on 18 x24" sheets of paper; Canson Recycled Sketch for the top three and Canson XL Drawing paper for the lower two.

Entry for March 1, 2013

On the Friday I got out for two hours of the session at Project:Art. Gina was working, in the same black chair/white wall configuration that Mark is favouring these days.
This is done with hard compressed Nobel charcoal on a 22 x 30" sheet of Maidstone rag paper.
(This session runs weekly from 7-10 on Friday nights, $15 drop-in fee. The door is in the alley just south of Malabar's, running west off of McCaul).

The austerity of the set-up and strong lighting puts focus on people's anatomy, and starting in just over a week, you can be doing an anatomy for artists class with me for 11 weeks at the Avenue Road Arts School, on Friday afternoons. More details here - sign up fast for that.
If you've never done any figure drawing and want to try it out, I'm teaching an 11-week intro class there on Wednesday evenings, also starting in about a week. Details on that here. Act now...

Entry for Feb 26, 2013

On that Tuesday I braved yet another of this year's ugly, blizzardy nights to get over to the Rhino bar, where Toons on Tap were having their 1-year anniversary drawing session.
Sion and local Burlesque person Charlie Quinn were working with a Film Noir/gangster theme, amplified by a really good soundtrack and dramatic sidelighting.
These are three 10-minute studies, a 15-minute and a 20-minute one, and two more 5-minute ones.
The 15 and the 20 are done with hard compressed charcoal, and all the rest are done with a Sakura Graphic pen.
All are done on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper.
It was a fun evening.

Entry for Feb 22, 2013

On that Friday night, Shel was working.  She had her hair down, and sat with a calm smile for the duration of the evening (with rests, of course). She had a calm presence that was enjoyable to be around. This is a  2-hour+ study done with hard Nobel compressed charcoal on a 22 x 30" sheet of Maidstone 90 lb rag paper.
In my experience, long poses aren't the best way to begin to learn to draw people. If beginning to draw people is something you want to learn about, I'll be teaching an 11-week class in life Drawing Basics at the Avenue Road Art School beginning early April on Wednesday nights. You can get details here on that.
If you already have experience in drawing or painting people and you want to learn more about body structure, I'm also offering an 11-week Anatomy basics course at Avenue Road on Friday afternoons, and the details on that are here.
How bodies are put together fascinates me, and I really like to share that information.

4th entry for Feb 18, 2013

(The Avenue Road Art School's 11-week spring session is starting soon -April 8, and there are two classes on offer there that I will be teaching.
You can take  Life Drawing Basics on Wednesday nights - you can get full details here.
And you can take Art Anatomy on Friday afternoons - more information on that course here.)
 
From the top, theses are five 5-minute studies, two 10-minute ones and a 15-minute study to end the night.
The top four are done with hard compressed Nobel charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The lower four are the same charcoal on 22 x 30" sheets of Maidstone 90 lb rag paper.

3rd entry for Feb 18, 2013

These are 2-minute and 3-minute studies. Visually, chain is really striking, and the clinking sounds add a particular ambiance. But shiny chain is not an easy thing to set down quickly in a drawing - the best I could do is try to imply the atual shapes, and record where they were and how they were load-bearing.
Heather's poses were good and strong - it can't be too comfortable carrying body weight on a chain, either, but she made it seem no problem.

2nd entry for Feb 18, 2013

These are some 1-minute and 2-minute studies, also done with a Sakura Graphic pen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.
People who are feeling the loss of the TSA will be happy to know that work is well underway now for a TSA reboot in the Bloor/Dufferin area. More news to follow soon...

1st entry for Feb 18, 2013

On the Monday I was at Diane McGrath's Drawing Room drawing session. Heather was there that evening, working on a rig of steel chains.
Chain is visually striking, but it is rather challenging to draw in short time spans. These are 30-second and 1-minute studies, done with a Sakura Graphic pen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

Entry for Feb 15, 2013

(Learning opportunities alert: The Avenue Road Art School's 11-week spring session is starting April 8, and there are two classes on offer there that I will be teaching:  Life Drawing Basics on Wednesday nights, and Art Anatomy on Friday afternoons. You can get more information on the courses and ARAS contact info through their website here)

On the Friday night I got out for a little over 2 hours of the Project:Art long pose session. Simla was working.
Part of the challenge is what to do with all the negative space. What was striking for me was a narrow strip of her head and vertical torso, but that doesn't cover much of a rectangular sheet. The surrounding shadows on the white wall were interesting, but including all of her body would have looked really conventional.
So I tried this, using a square area of the page instead of the rectangle, and dropping out most of the values at the sides to make a tall rectangle within.

Entry for Feb 7, 2013

On the Thursday I went for a bit of drawing at Project:art, where the former TSA's Thursday life drawing group continues to work. Serenity was working, and these are a 15-minute study above and a 20 and a 25-minute study below.
The top one is on an 18 x 24" sheet of Canson recycled sketch paper, and the lower two are on 22 x 30" sheets of 90 lb Maidstone rag paper.
You can get more info about the Thursday and Friday night Project:Art sessions here.

3rd entry for Jan 29, 2012

A `lightning round' of 1-minute poses wrapped up that night. These are done with hard Nobel compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.