Entry for Jan 7, 2014

(I'm pleased to note that my upcoming 12-week Saturday afternoon Intro to Life Drawing class will run, starting Saturday, Jan 25, and there is still room. You can enroll through the link here, and if you enter the promotional code "winter25", you'll get a $25 discount as well.)

The Drawing Room sessions have been on hiatus and will be 'til the end of this month. So on the the Tuesday I got back out to Artists 25.  Tanya was there working, and these are a 5-minute up top, two 10-minutes below and three 20-minute studies at the bottom.
The top three are all Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The bottom three are all water-soluble graphite, the first on some heavy Canson paper, and the lower two on some cream-coloured Somerset papers, all roughly 18 x 24"

2nd entry for Jan 5, 2014

These are all 15-minute studies, done with a Pitt calligraphy marker on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper. Most of these had a bit of pencil underdrawing as well, to help with proportions.

1st entry for Jan 5, 2014

One more reminder, my 12-week Saturday afternoon Intro to Life Drawing class is slated now to start Saturday, Jan 25, and there is still room. You can enroll through the link here, and if you enter the promotional code "winter25", you'll get a $25 discount as well. People who took classes last term can contact the TSA office about an even better possible deal, too.

On the Sunday morning, Nyda was back at the Sackville drawing session. These are a 5-minute study at top, and four 10-minute ones below that. All are done with a Pitt calligraphy point pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

2nd entry for Jan 4, 2014

Do you want to learn more about Life Drawing for yourself? My 12-week Saturday afternoon Intro to Life Drawing class is slated now to start Saturday, Jan 25, and there is still room. You can enroll through the link here, and if you enter the promotional code "winter25", you'll get a $25 discount as well.


These are three 15-minute studies, plus a 20-minute one 2nd from the bottom. The 15's are all done with the Pitt felt pen on 18 x 24"sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper. The standing study is water-soluble graphite on a sheet of heavy Canson Bristol paper, also 18 x 24"

1st entry for Jan 4, 2014

January signals a new year and a new opportunity to start engaging in Life Drawing for yourself. My 12-week Intro to Lif Drawing class should be starting Saturday, Jan 25, and there is still room. You can enroll through the link here, and if you enter the promotional code "winter25", you'll get a $25 discount as well.

On the Saturday morning, Katherine was working at the Daniels Spectrum session. These are two 5-minute studies followed by three 10-minute ones, all Pitt calligraphy point pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

Entry for Dec 28, 2013 (Last entry for 2013)

(Here we are, a week into January and wrapping up the 2013 posts. There were 237 of them in total for the year, so roughly two posts for every 3 days or so. That's down from the nearly 500 posts for each of 2011 & 2012, but I also discovered that I could now include more than 5 images per post, which was not previously the case. This year passed also saw a number of big events in my life, for which figure drawing dropped off a bit from the previous year's involvement.)

On the Sunday, Nyda was back in town and came to work for the Sackville drawing session. The top three studies are 10 minutes each, done with Pitt calligraphy point pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The two below that are each 15 minutes using the same pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper (and the lower of the two sees a return of the oil-base pencil in the upper body shading..) The study second from bottom is water-soluble graphite on 18 x 24" 150 lb Maidstone paper.
The small 10-minute head study is the same paper/pen as the top three.

Entry for Dec 28, 2013

(A new year is a really good time to start learning some life drawing skills, or building on what you already have. Saturday afternoons starting Jan. 18,  I teach a 12-week class at the TSA on Figure Draing Basics. You can enroll via this link,and save yourself $25 if you put in the promotional code `winter25'.
And, if you're a prior TSA student, you can get a further discount if you contact the TSA office
directly to register.)

The Christmas bustle was winding down and on the Saturday morning I went over to the Sackville drawing session. Polina was back working, and I was trying a variety of media combinations.  I was interested in the mixing of oil-base pencil shading and black pen line, I wasn't happy with a number of the studies from that day; they looked too awkward.
The top two studies and the bottom one are all on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The top 10-minute  one is just Pitt pen. the next one down is a grey Pentel brushpen line drawing with oil-base pencil shading. The next one is a 15-minute study on 18 x 24" Canson XL Drawing paper with Pitt pen lines and oil-based pencil shading.
The black of a pigment pen is so intense that any pencil - even a more black one - looks washed-out beside it. I was thinking that the gray line might allow for the crispness of pen line but not overpower the pencil. But that is a more time-consuming process as many of the lines would ultimately need strengthening. Pencil shading has its charms, and is finer in texture than Conte or charcoal, but takes a while to lay down, so neither of these pen/pencil combos seem ideal for short time situations.
The second-last study was a little over 20 minutes, done with water-soluble graphite on an 18 x 24" sheet of 90 lb Somerset Book rag paper.  It turned out a bit more `graphic' than I was intending, but it is nice and bold.  The bottom study is just under 10 minutes, back to Pitt calligraphy point pen.

Entry for Dec 21, 2013

On the Saturday morning (the day before before the ice storm  descended,)  I went over to the Sackville drawing session. Serenity was working. These are a 5-minute study at top, a 10-minute and a 15-minute  below that,  followed by a 20-minute study and another 15-minute one.  My handling was a little looser that morning. The top three are done with a Pitt calligraphy point felt pen. The kneeling pose also has some graphite shading.
The lower two are both done with water-soluble graphite on 18 x 24" sheets of rag paper; 150 lb Maidstone above, 90 lb Somerset book below.

2nd entry for Dec 19, 2013

These are three 10-minute studies at top, three 15-minute ones below that and a 35-minute one at the bottom.
The 10's and 15's are done with the same Pitt calligraphy point felt pens, on Canson Recycled ketch paper for the shorter ones and Canson XL Drawing paper for the longer ones.
The bottom most one is water-soluble graphite on 150 lb Maidstone rag paper with graphite pencil added later.
The tonal range is good, and the likeness worked well, and at first glance I was happy with it. But the proportions are just off enough that on further inspection, Zia's head is troublingly big on her body, as is her foreground leg.
The image above is the drawing itself,  and below that is a roughly photoshopped version with adjusted proportions. Just a few millimeters here and there, but they make a difference. Proportion and alignment for me remain the final frontier. It seems the more traditionally rendered the image, the more troubling proportion and alignment errors look.