2nd Entry for Dec 3, 2010

The top image was done on 20 x 30" cartridge paper with a Prismacolor art stick.
The lower three are all using soft graphite sticks on 18 x 24" Japanese paper, and were in the 15 - 20 minute range. The seated figure was all right, but the two head studies were much less successful. They have a bit of the shape of G-  's face, but I have done a lot better.

That happens - a stretch of drawing flames out and the results are weak.  Two days before was a really good portrait day, so these stood in particular contrast. But as always, I enjoy the trying - even if the results don't pan out.

3rd entry for December 15, 2009

These were a 20-minute pose facing away and a 10-minute pose Z- ended the night with.

It was part-way through the back study that I got my groove back, once the Russians had left the radio (see the previous entry).
Prior to that it was an hour of false starts, where I just could not get the proportions - or even a semblance of Z - to work at all. As it was, it took 3 tries to get the size of Z- 's hair on the page to be small enough to allow the rest of her figure to fit.

The shorther study was about 10 minutes, but only 5 or so of those were spent drawing as from where I sat a lamp stand was bisecting her face, and I tried unsuccessfully shifting a bit here and there so her head would be one side or the other. It is a rough drawing, but I think there is something good and direct in it in spite of it not being very polished in its handling. It was an alive study.

Prior to that, whether due to music or neurosis or whatever, there was an hour where I seemed to have completely forgotten how to draw people. That happens once in a while.

Anyone else have that experience?

3rd Entry for July 7, 2009

All three of these were 15-minute poses, and they closed off the evening. I was trying to be conscious of putting more heart - more depth of connection - into the drawing. Results varied. The leg in the sitting pose facing away from me lacks a shadow, and seems to be floating awkward and unplanted in space. Same with the outstretched leg in G- 's reclining pose. I rushed through it and it seems stiff and disconnected to the space. She looked far more comfortable than that.

I'm sure any of you readers in Toronto on the 20th would have much better results if you attended her modelling fundraiser that day.

1st entry for May 14, 2009

On the Thursday I went to Diane's Drawing Room session. I was late, owing to a nap that ran too long. I was also tired and a little edgy that night, no doubt also due to being weary. Nothing was going smoothly. The music was jarring; I wasn't finding a good rhythm, etc. No fault of the space or anything - just got up on the wrong side of the couch. But I stayed and soldiered on, albeit getting a little over-vigourous & noisy in my shading at times (feeling embarassed, at the same time, of my lack of maturity in dealing with frustration).
Most of the efforts weren't worth documenting.
These studies of P- range from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.

4th entry for February 26, 2009

This was the rest of the okay studies from that Thursday. The two above were 5 minutes each, and the lower one is a 10-minute study. Drawing someone in a hoop like this, I find I have to be extra-conscious of how large and where their body parts sit on the hoop's circumferance and what sort of ellipse the hoop presents.

You can see the evidence of how I wrestled with getting these - especially the 10-minute one - to hang together, Despite the extra time, it was the 5-minute poses that worked best this time.

1st entry for January 6, 2009

It was a real `comedy of errors' evening for me when I went out to Artists 25. Simple things kept going awry, and despite my best efforts, missed the gesture poses again.
These are 2 10-minute studies.

W- was working, and I find her face interesting and challenging to draw. A lot of the evening was spent wrestling with her likeness. The challenge was deepened by her hair, which has fairly wild, random set of curls and locks.