1st entry for June 11, 2013

On the Tuesday evening I went over to Artists 25. Natalie was working that evening. Strong sidelighting from my point of view, and some rich colours in background fabrics and her hair. I was working again with the warm gray Copic matkers, but was working more slowly and wrestling a bit more with the materials.  I felt the previous time I had drawn her at the TSA (May 17) in charcoal was more successful. The lighting was more frontal and subtle on that occasion.
These efforts were more up-and-down, I felt.
I like the `painterly' aspect of the markers- their look evokes for me a bit of Rembrandt and Goya sketches.They have lots of gusto, but there's some textural aspect that I'm not feeling in them - too smooth or something - that I'd like to work out.
With adequate time, the distinct multiple levels of value are great for exploring contrast and lighting considerations in a less random way. Without adequate time, they get an urgency, and if I luck out and everything necessary works out, they are very vibrant. And it's okay that many of those don't - that's part of the price of working that way.
'Adequate time' seems to be currently in the 20 minutes plus range. But I believe it takes a good half-year or more to really get inside a new working medium, and things usually speed up as familiarity grows.
The top study is 3 minutes on 18 x 24" bond paper.
The next three are a 5-minute and two 10-minute studies, on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper.
The lowest one is on 18 x 24" Canson Mixed Media paper.