3rd entry for June 3, 2014

It's my experience that the first 15-20 minutes of any drawing session are by and large weak drawings, as I find my way into a drawing `groove'. If you look back at previous aerial sessions, usually by the time I get to 3-minute studies at Diane's session I'm able to get a lot of information down, and body forms are getting better articulated. That wasn't going so well on this occasion, partly owing to competing sonic sources (a clicking ceiling fan and a funk playlist at different tempos.)
The first three are 3-minute studies on different Canson papers. I felt the drawing was getting worse, and my project of trying to let go of distracting sounds was failing. (After all, drawing many times involves less than ideal situations, so the more flexible I am, ideally the better.)  I did something I rarely do, totally scratched out a drawing in frustration. Generally, I accept that a fair percentage of what I do won't come together, though that doesn't mean it isn't worth always trying for. Having broken the nib on my felt liner pen, I switched to a pencil.
Interestingly, the middle study is also 3 minutes, but with pencil it was much easier and more intuitive to do, as I could include lots of gestural marks, and so there's a much better-articulated body, done more fast and free. Drawing in pure line with a pen, all that has to be clear intuitively, which is much more focus-demanding for me (and therefore hard-core focus exercise).
The bottom two are a medium-point Pitt pen and water-soluble graphite washes on 18 x 24" Canson XL mixed media paper. The fan went off at the mid-class break, and the drawing was getting easier and more effective as I got unwound.
I like things about how the bottom image is only partly shaded. It's due to time constraints, but has a freshness because of that.