1st entry for Oct 17, 2013

On the Thursday night I picked up on another of the Collective drawing sessions, this time in a nice house in the west end of downtown. I was again trying to shoehorn life drawing into ever-smaller packages. These are all done with a Pentel brushpen in a 9 x 12" pad. The poses range here from 1 minute up top to 5-minute at the bottom. The studies were hit-and-miss that night, but these have a directness and relative lack of affectation that I'm liking in hindsight.

3rd entry for Oct 15, 2013

These are four 5-minute studies above, two 10-minute ones below that, and a 15-minute study at bottom.
The bottom one is water-soluble graphite on an 18 x 24"sheet of 150 lb Maidstone paper. All the others are done with a Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24"sheets of paper as well; the top two on Canson Recycled Sketch paper, the ones below that on Canson XL Drawing paper. For the longer studies I did a little bit of pencil undersketching, too keep proportions in line a bit.

2nd entry for Oct 15, 2013

These are some 2-minute studies above and 3-minute ones lower down, all done with Pitt Calligraphy marker on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

1st entry for Oct 15, 2013

The practice of drawing people continues to enthrall me,  I'm happy that Diane Mcgrath's Drawing Room aerial drawing sessions are back now. They  run every Tuesday aftternoon, 1:30 - 3:30, and are, at least for me, a particularly enjoyable exercise in gesture and speed drawing. They are open to anyone to attend, and cost $10.
On this Tuesday Katelyn was working, and these are 30-second and 1-minute studies, done with a Faber-Castell Pitt calligraphy tip marker on cartridge paper. Unlike the brushpen, one can apply some pressure to the pen without lines getting super-heavy. Having a heavy-ish hand, I like that when drawing quickly.

Entry for Oct 13, 2013

On the Sunday, I got over to the 519 Community Centre's once-monthly Sunday morning session. It's $10 and happens on the 2nd Sunday of each month, from 10 - 1.
The room is a very light one, with white walls and a big window letting in lots of ambient light. The 519 drawers have a regular Thursday night session with short poses, and this Sunday on is focused on getting into longer work, which appeals to me. Jimmy was back working this time as well. All of these are on 18 x 24" sheets of paper The top two are 3-minute studies and the head study is 5 minutes, all on cartridge paper, all done with a Pentel brushpen. The next two are 15-minutes, done with the brushpen on Canson Recycled Sketch paper. I felt that the detail in the two was good, but proportions were pretty squelchy in those two.
The standing 2-minute study is on on Canson XL Drawing paper, and the bottom reclining figure is on Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The sitting and texting study is a 20-minute one on 150 lb. Maidstone rag paper, done with water-soluble graphite and some pencil underdrawing.
I'm happy with the last three here. The sitting study was a bit of a happy discovery; there wasn't enough time to do the more wash-heavy extended studies with the water-based graphite that I've been doing with 40-minute and upwards poses. I used a thin brush to draw the lines like a brushpen, but the more gray line is a bit less uncompromising compared to the black ink of the brushpen. I had a broader brush to put in some washes and move some graphite out from the lines. The pentel pen is good discipline training in this regard. Working in a light-filled space likely made a difference, as opposed to some more dramatically-lit studio spaces.
The lighter wash passages are more airy and fresh, more like what I liked in the Copic drawings, so this is a degree of shading I want to investigate further.
The texting pose was a happenstance - Jimmy was texting on break, and it looked good, giving him a reason to sit and not look out into middle distance.

2nd entry for Oct 10, 2013

These are three 1-minute studies on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper at top; below that are two 15-minute studies on 18 x 24" Canson XL Drawing paper. The top 5 are all done with a Pentel brushpen, wiith some pencil underdrawing for the 15 minute ones.
The bottom one is a 40-minute study with later additional working, done with water-soluble graphite on an 18 x 24" sheet of 150 lb Maidstone rag paper.

1st entry for Oct 10, 2013

I was over at Project:art on the Thursday evening. still nursing my wounds. William, a new model, was working that night. These are 1-minute studies done with Pentel brushpen on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.

3rd entry for Oct. 8, 2013

There are a lot of ropes around in the new space, and Sandra was playing with them  for some longer poses These are two 5-minute ones above, and a 10-minute one below. They are all drawn with a Pentel brushpen, the top two on Canson Recycled Sketch paper, the lower one on Canson XL Drawing paper, all 18 x 24"