3rd entry for Sept 10, 2013

These are some 10-minute (or were they 5?) poses of the two models working separately for a set, all done with a Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.
It was around the second of these that the drawing `clicked' better.

2nd entry for Sept 10, 2013

These are a 5-minute study at top and three 10-minute ones below. All are done with a Pentel brushpen, plus some warm gray Copic markers in the last one. The top three are on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper, and the lower one is on 18 x 24" Canson XL Drawing paper.

1st entry for Sept 10, 2013

Fantasy was the order of the day on the Tuesday night, sketching at the Toons on Tap session upstairs at the Rhino Bar in Parkdale. The theme of the night was `Game of Thrones', and had local burlesque artist El Toro and local cosplayer Northern Belle Cosplay as Khal Drogo and Khalessi Daenerys respectively. These are short studies, about 3 minutes each, Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" cartridge paper  sheets.

2nd entry for Sept 8, 2013

(Wanting to investigate some life drawing yourself? Beginning Nov 2,  you can take a 6-week Life-drawing basics course with me on Saturday afternoons at the TSA.)

The last two studies that day were 30 minutes and 45 minutes respectively. The top one is Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The lower one is water-soluble graphite on an 18 x 24" sheet of 150 lb. Maidstone paper.
There is overworking in each, but I continue to be interested in the pictorial possibilities the graphite has. A little more than 40 minutes continues to be the optimal time; long enough to not rush, but not long enough to over-render.

1st entry for Sept 8, 2012

(Last chance to guarantee a spot in the 12-week Saturday afternoon life drawing course at the TSA - if you enroll before tomorrow (Thursday)  morning, or very first thing in the day. You can sign up here and save $40 in the process!)

On the Sunday Morning, Jimmy was working at the 519 Community Centre session, which runs 10 - 1 once monthly, on the 2nd Sunday of the month.
These are a couple of 3-minute studies, a 5-minute one and a 15-minute one. The top three are all Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" cartridge paper, while the  lower one is the same pen on 18 x 24" Canson XL Drawing paper, with brushpen and some misted india ink on the paper.

3rd entry for Sept 8, 2013

There's still time to join in to the Saturday afternoon Introduction to Life Drawing at the Toronto School of Art, which runs 12:45 - 3:45 from Sept. 28 to Dec. 14. You can sign up here (with a discount...) , but do so before Thursday to assure a place!

On the Saturday afternoon I headed over to Artists 25 to try some more experimentation with water-soluble graphite. I had ideas of doing two 1-hour studies, but one ended up using the majority of the available time. The top study is a  1.5 hour one, on an 18 x 24" sheet of 150 lb. Maidstone paper. The lower one is a 15-minute study on a 12 x 18" sheet of the same paper. It's interesting to see how the medium handles, fast and slow.

2nd entry for Sept 7, 2013

If you're in Toronto, you can see some of these recent drawing researches and some  circus/dance studies at my booth at the Queen West Art Crawl this weekend. You can buy them, too, if you're so inclined.
I'll be at booth J31, facing west towards the Community Centre in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, from 11 - 6 daily - hope to see you there!

The top three of these are on 18 x24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper, and the lowest one is on an 18 x 24" sheet of Canson XL Drawing paper. All have been prepared by masking areas and misting with india ink beforehand. Depending on placement and how things interact with the figure, this approach works more congruently with some images than others, but that's part of what's interesting, and does soften the sharpness of the crisp black lines.
They are three 15-minute studies above, and a 20-minute below, all drawn with a Pentel brushpen.

1st entry for Sept 7, 2013

(there's still time to join my Wednesday morning Portrait class, from 10 - 1 weekly at the TSA, Sept 25 - Dec 11. You can enroll and have a $40 discount here.)

On the Saturday morning Carmina was working at the Sackville drawing session (east end, in the Daniels Spectrum building) and I was continuing to experiment with some prepared papers. I had two variants on an `xyz axis' intersection, one thicker and one thinner. I was wondering if it might evoke a sort of stylized architectural space.
These are 10-minute studies, done on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper with a Pentel brushpen. Using the area of misted india ink as the drawing area within the paper is interesting, rather than letting it interact more randomly with a full figure. The shapes of the pose suited that on this one.

2nd entry for Sept 4, 2013

(as well as my own classes in Intro Life Drawing and Portaiture starting next week at the TSA, I will be  showing work - including some of these figure studies - this weekend at the Queen West Art Crawl in Trinity-Bellwoods Park. I'll be in booth J31, facing south-west towards the Community Centre building.
And, in more park-themed news, come do some outside figure drawing this Wednesday afternoon from 2:30 - 5:30 at Dufferin Grove Park. It's a PWYC session - just bring paper, something to sit on, and warm layers, just in case. The session will happen at the TSA if it's raining.)

... as for the studies here,
These are two 7-minute studies up top, three 10-minute ones in the middle and a 15-minute one below. All are on 18 x 24" sheets, the top 3 on cartridge paper, the next two on Canson Recycled sketch paper, and the last on Canson XL Drawing paper.  The bottom three had areas misted with india ink beforehand.
The Gladstone sessions music continued to throw me at times. I can draw to almost anything with a steady beat, but fast-paced and staccato music is for me inimical to focused contour drawing, especially when it is unfamiliar.  This time it was also old cassettes with stretch problems, so tempo was wavering. A cassette of organ music which, with speed issues that sounded like skating music from a David Lynch acid trip was a source of overall mirth before it was mercifully ejected. After that, a pianist I don't know was playing a very lively version of a Miles Davis piece off Kind of Blue. The driving boogie-woogie piano playing in it had just too strong a rhythm, and for a while I abandoned trying to draw Paris and just made marks in time to the music.
I wasn't coming to have a breakthrough/breakdown into non-objective drawing. It's not an entirely bad thing doing that, as that can be freeing. By the end I had settled back, and maybe, despite a smallish head, the last study is better for having been shaken out of my usual groove.

1st entry for Sept 4, 2013

On the Wednesday night I took another stab at the Gladstone's Art Bar drawing session. This time it had been bumped into a slightly smaller upstairs room. The overloud (at least for neurotic me) jazz music was still in effect.
Paris was working that night, and these ate some 3-minute and 5-minute studies, done with brushpen on  18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.
For the 5-minute ones I was getting reoriented with the specifics of Paris' head and face. I find the first part of any session is a process of easing into a connected working headspace.

2nd entry for Sept 1, 2013

These are all roughly 50-minute studies, done with water-soluble graphite washes on 18 x 24" sheets of heavy Maidstone paper.
I'm feeling optimistic about the way that these allow for much of the fluid freedom of the Copic pens, but with a bit more grain and are lightfast, too.

1st entry for September 1, 2013

(I'm going to be teaching a 12-week Life Drawing Basics class at the Toronto School of Art. It woll start Sept 28, and will run from 12:45 to 3:35 weekly. There is still room, and you can enroll for it with a discount here.)
On the Sunday morning Polina was back in working. I was a bit slow getting some sheets of paper and other materials prepared for the day, but came armed with some pre-sprayed sheets of paper. All these are done with Pentel brushpen in 18 x 24" sheets of paper. The top one is on cartridge paper, the next three on Canson Recycled Sketch paper, and the last one is on Canson XL Drawing paper.

2nd entry for August 31, 2013

From the top, these are a pair of 10-minute studies, some 15-minute ones and another 10-minute one at the bottom.
All these are done on paper I had prepared by masking some areas and misting with india ink. All are done with a Pentel brushpen. The middle two also have some warm gray Copic marker.
The  fourth and last ones are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL drawing paper, and the others are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.  For wetter media, I'm finding I prefer the slightly heavier XL Drawing paper. Ink spreads a little less, and a partial misting doesn't cause the paper to buckle, which can happen with the thinner Recycled Sketch paper; the areas that get dampened expand slightly, but the adjacent dry masked areas don't, so the paper can pucker right where they meet.
On this blog I present much of the figure study I do, to document the process and the ups and downs that can happen within one stretch of drawing. It would be great if everything worked out to full satisfaction, but that's not how it works, at least for me. I like the top two, and the horizontal banding works quite well on the lying-down figure.  The third from bottom is a little over-rendered in Jen's face. The drawing of her face in the sitting pose below it overwhelms the rest of the drawing, which presently has no chair rails, which doesn't work so well here. In more pure line drawings, economy of description in faces is a wise idea, but I am constantly tempted to put in a little more.
The standing figure worked well for me.