Entry for March 7, 2013

On the Friday I made it out to the monthly Dr. Sketchy's session at Round venue in Kensington.
It was the second edition of the new Sketchy's group, organized by the team behind Toons on Tap.  Cassia Sparkle was working that night in mermaid-themed costumes. These are three 1-minute studies, two 5-minute ones, a 10-minute one and three 15-minute ones.  It was an entertaining session, and interesting ensembles, but not one of my strongest drawing outings. I'm okay with the profile one with the fish; it worked out the best overall.

4th entry for March 4th

These are two 5-minute studies, two 10-minute ones and a 15-minute one at bottom. The top four are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper, and the last one is on 150 lb Maidstone rag paper.
The top four are a Pitt pen, and the lower one is water-soluble graphite.
Michelle's use of a puffy hooded white vest was a change of pace- so often aerial costumes are about maximum body freedom and displaying body form. The hooding reminded me a tiny bit of costuming I've seen and liked from the urban dance company Gadfly over the last few years.

If you're looking to expand and push your own life drawing skills beyond an introductory level, I teach a Beyond Basic Life Drawing course Thursday nights in the Spring term at the TSA. It's $460 for the 10 weeks (including model fees) and if you sign up before March 31st with the promo code SPRING40, you can save $40 on it. You can register for it here.

3rd entry for Mar 4, 2014

These are 3-minute studies, done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

2nd entry for Mar 4, 2014

These are some 1-minute and 2-minute studies, also done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

I like the challenge of setting people down in a very short timespan, and I find drawing people at Diane's studio takes the life drawing basics up a couple of notches, using all the knowledge gained in drawing people in a regular life drawing session, accelerating it and turning it sideways or upside-down and adding some drapery. It's a really engaging workout..

If you're a beginner or don't have much familiarity with drawing people, I'm teaching an Intro Life Drawing class starting mid-April at the Toronto School of Art. It starts with absolute basics, and for the Spring term will put the emphasis on working with shorter studies - up to roughly 20 minutes. It's $460 for 10 weeks, 9-noon weekly starting April 19. If you enter the promo code SPRING40, you can save $40 until March 31st. You can sign up here.

1st entry for Mar 4, 2014

On the following Tuesday, Michelle was working. These are some 1-minute studies, done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

(Side note: if you've noticed that images were displaying quite gray of late, so did I. The issue turned out to be an `auto-enhance'' feature for pictures that Google recently threw in as a default setting, which could only be turned off by joining Google Plus to access the relevant settings menu.
`Auto-enhance' in this case is a bit of a misnomer- it should have been named `Auto-make-images-look-crappy', or `auto-degrade'.
It's turned off now, and a number of posts re-loaded with un`enhanced' versions of the images.
Thanks, Google...)

2nd entry for Feb 27, 2014

These are a couple of 10-minute studies, a 20-minute one and one other 15-minute study.
The top three are Pitt pen on 12 x 18" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper, and the bottom one is water-soluble graphite on a 12 x 18" sheet of 150 lb Maidstone paper.
The last one was a bit rushed - 15 minutes I find is my functional limit for the graphite; 20 minutes and up is easier. Fiona's wig was tricky - it was patently artificial looking, and framed her face in a way that didn't quite sit with the shape of her face.
Still, it was fun to work with.

1st entry for Feb 27, 2014

(Four weeks 'til my TSA Spring session classes start, and 9 days 'til the Early Bird discount ends on March 31)

Things have been busier than usual, and it was not 'til a week later that I got out for some more drawing. It was at a Collective session held this time at an apartment on Broadview.  Local burlesque performer Fiona provided volunteer modelling.  Very pinup-y poses with a massive disco-tastic wig made for a good workout.
These are some 5-minute and 10-minute studies, all Pitt pen on 12 x 18" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

2nd entry for Feb 20, 2014

These are a couple of 15-minute studies, a 3-minute one and a 20-minute at bottom. The top two are done with Pitt pen on 18\2 x 18" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper, the short one same size and pen on Canson Recycled Sketch paper, and the bottom one on a 12 x 18" sheet of 150 lb Maidstone rag paper.
I like the challenges and possibilities of working with wet media and have worked on them through the years. This Spring I'll be teaching a 3-day Drawing with Ink intensive at the Toronto School of Art, May 12 - 14 from 10 - 5 daily.
It's $300, and includes one 3-hour stretch working with a model. If you sign up before March 31, you can get a $30 early-bird discount by putting in the promo code SPRING30 online. You can register here.

1st entry for Feb 20, 2014

On the Thursday night I got up to a Collective drawing evening, this time up in a North York condo. Mara was back as a volunteer model. These are some 3-minute and 5-minute studies, done with Pitt pen on 12 x 18" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

The upcoming Spring term is a great time to work on getting faster and more responsive with drawing the figure in shorter poses. I'm teaching a 10-week Life Drawing Basics class at the Toronto School of Art, Saturday mornings April 19 - June 21. The emphasis this term will be working fast and responsively, and will incorporate some of the approaches I've been working with in teaching this year up at Sheridan College's Art Fundamentals program.

It's $480, but if you sign up before March 31, you can get a $40 early-bird discount by putting in the promo code SPRING40 online. You can get details and register here.

3rd entry for Feb 18, 2014

These are three 5-minute studies above, two 10-minute ones below that and a 15-minute study at bottom. They are all done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" Canson XL drawing paper, except for the bottom one, which is water-soluble graphite on 18 x 24" Maidstone rag paper.