Entry for Jan 20, 2015

I find that often after a drawing session that goes well, there will be a day with some weaker drawing, and that was the case on the Tuesday night. Buoyed by promising results over a couple of previous sessions - and by the the night before at the White House -  I persevered through transit irritation to get over to Artists 25. Paris was working that night, and I had some papers I had got that I wanted to test out.
The top one is black and grey brushpens on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The second one is also ink washes on a 15 x 22 sheet of Stonehenge paper. It was a bit more bleed-y than I would have liked.
The next one is water-soluble graphite on an 18 x 24" sheet of Canson watercolour paper. The last two are on 18 x 24" sheets of some Curry's brand cold-pressed 200 lb. rag watercolour paper.
I had picked up a 5-pack of the 200 lb paper, but found it too rough on first try, especially with dry media. This evening I tried sanding it lightly before working. That led to a smoother surface, loads of cotton dust, and uneven absorption, so that is an experiment that has not been repeated.
There just wasn't chemistry for me that night. Some nights are like that, but it's always worth trying, if only to rule out unproductive hypotheses.
The standing back study was okay, but the rest of the night was something of a wash. The images did resemble Paris, but were lacking focus and confidence. Even Paris himself, who is dependably flattering to people about their work, wasn't saying much when he peeked at these during breaks...