1st entry for Aug 24, 2013

Warming up; on the Saturday morning, the host Paul filled in with a few short poses at the Sackville drawing session at the Daniels Spectrum building.
Seye took over soon afterward with some further 1-minute poses. The top three sheets here are all 1-minute studies. I was a little short on cheap cartridge paper so I put multiple studies per 16 x 24" sheet, some of which I had misted with india ink a couple of weeks before. The bottom two sheets are 5-minute studies. I had a spritzer bottle which delivered a finer mist thanks to Zia, and the lowest one is on a sheet of Canson Recycled Sketch paper half-misted with dilute black ink.  All of thede are done with black Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets.

3rd entry for August 17, 2013

These are 15-minute studies. The top one is on an 18 x 24" sheet of Canson Recycled Sketch paper while the lower two are on the same size of Canson XL Drawing paper. These are done with Pentel brushpen and some lighter value Copic warm gray markers. I had a thought while drawing Amanda that day that because of her smoothly rounded forms, the challenge with doing a line drawing of her is that she only has about 12 real lines, mostly on her outside edges. Defining interior contours mostly through shading rather than contour lines seemed to work well.
I ran out of time for getting into darker values, and I find these still a bit washed-out looking, but with potential.

2nd entry for August 17, 2013

These are some 5-minute and 10-minute studies, done with Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.
Amanda's body is noticeably too large in comparison to her body in the middle one. Drawing heads inly in line I find especially tricky owing to how strategically they need to be placed, and how easy it is to overwork. This head study did all right, I thought.

1st entry for August 17, 2013

(After a year's absence, my course Introduction to Portrait Drawing  is back on offer at the Toronto School of Art on Wednesdays from 10 AM to 1 PM, starting Sept. 18. You can sign up here.)

On the Saturday, Amanda jumped in to work at the Sackville sessions. These are 1-minute studies, done with a Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper, several of which had been misted with indian ink and/or ochre-coloured ink.

3rd entry for August 11, 2013

After the 519 garden drawing session, I swung down to the Sackville afternoon session to try out a new material. Long poses are a good testing ground for unfamiliar approaches.  I had been told about a water-soluble graphite that comes in a pan and this was my first proper field test. The top study was roughly 25 minutes with Carmina in pose, and the lower one had about 40 minutes of model time. I used washes of different strength graphite, and reinforced/evened out some of the dark tones with a Copic 50% neutral gray marker on the lower one.
Later I worked into the drawings with a soft graphite stick on the top one, and a medium oil-based pecil in the lower one, just on Carmina's forms and the chair. I had been looking at some Richard Diebenkorn work, and I do think that was informing my use of the surrounding architectural space.

2nd entry for August 11, 2013

These are a 30-minute, a 40-minute and another 30-minute study, done on a few types of 18 x 24" paper using warm gray Copic markers and a black Pentel brushpen.

1st entry for August 11, 2013

(A reminder that this Fall I'm teaching an a 12-week introduction to Portrait Drawing at the Toronto School of Art on Wednesday mornings, 10 - 1 weekly. It starts September 18, and you can enroll here - just scroll down to course 500)

On the Sunday I went to the 519 Community Centre for their once-monthly drawing session, which happens from 10 - 1 on the 2nd Sunday of each month.  The studio had been double-booked, so the session moved to the garden of one of the drawers, which was a nice treat, working under a canopy with diffuse natural light.
Jimmy was the model, and there are some 3-minute studies with brushpen on cartridge paper, and below is a 20-minute study done on Canson Mixed Media paper with brushpen and warm gray Copic markers.

2nd entry for August 10, 2013

These are three 15-minute studies and a 20-minute one at the bottom.  These are done with a range of different 18 x 24" Canson papers all but the 2nd-last one have a light colour misting with ink. The top two are done with warm gray Copic markers and a black Pentel brushpen.  The lower two are done with Neutral gray markers and the Pentel pen's lines.
The study second from the bottom has a well-described figure, but an awkwardly handled face. I fell into the trap of trying to over-render facial details in black, rather than letting the mid-tone grays do the job more subtly.
The other three were better than average, in my estimation; now and then, with the best of intentions, part of a drawing just bombs.

1st entry for Aug 10, 2013

On the Saturday morning, Tanya was over at the Daniels Spectrum building. These are two 1-minute studies up top, then two 5-minute ones and a 10-minute one at bottom.
All are on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper. I was continuing with an exploration of pre-treated paper - misted with an ink mixture - before drawing.
The top three are done exclusively with with a Pentel brushpen. the lower two are brushpen with warm gray Copic markers.
In the lowest one I experimented with an after-the-fact vignette shape in the background. I like the idea of this, but this one didn't do it for me. Maybe it's vignette or ground line, but not both at once...

3rd entry for August 4, 2013

( If you're thinking about taking a Fall class with me or any of the other artist instructors at the Toronto School of Art, the promotional discount has been extended to August 22 - sign up before then and you can save yourself $50. You can connect to (and sign up for) Fall drawing classes here -  use promo code Fall50 )

These are, from the top, two 15-minute studies, a 20-minute one and a 10-minute one. The top two are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper; the next is on an 18 x 24" sheet of Canson Mixed Media paper, and the bottom one is on an 18 x 24" sheet of cartridge paper.
All these are done with  a range of warm gray Copic markers.

2nd entry for Aug 4, 2013

(Heads are always integral, but haven't been as much of a focus in recent studies I've been posting, but I'm happy to note that the TSA has re-introduced my Wednesday morning Portrait Drawing class for the fall.. It starts mid-September and has twelve 3-hour classes, 10 AM - 1 PM weekly.  $535 gets you all this, model fee included. You can enroll here; just scroll down to course 500, Introduction to Portrait Drawing)

These are three 10-minute studies, done with a Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper that I had selectively misted with india ink. The sheets with hard-line masked-off area made for an interesting graphic effect. The other one looks quite trippy with values reversed in Photoshop.

1st entry for Aug 4, 2013

On the Sunday, Sidney was working over on Sackville. These are some 1-minute and 5-minute studies, done with Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper, several of which had been prepared by lightly misting with india ink ahead of time.

2nd entry for Aug 3, 2013

(I'm happy to note that the Aug 19-23 Anatomy Intensive at the TSA is definitely running, and there is a bit of space remaining for anyone who wants to join. You can enroll here.
Fall TSA courses - in Life Drawing, Portraiture and other studies - start mid-September, you can learn all about them (and sign up) here.)

From the top, these are two 15-minute studies, a 20-minute one and a 10-minute one.
The top one is on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper and the other three are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Mixed Media paper. All are done with a range of Copic warm gray markers plus sone Pentel brush pen.
The 20-minute one has a better balance of black line to gray; with the brushpen, images can shift into an illustration/comic-y feel more readily than without it. On the 1st and 4th images I ran out of time, hence the varied degrees of detail on them. But the more fully developed areas do function as a focal point within the studies.