3rd entry for Mar 25, 2012

These are a 15-minute study on 18 x 24" Canson paper above, and two 22 x 30" studies, the upper one on Legion rag paper, and the lower one on Maidstone rag paper. Both have some graphite underlayer.
The Legion paper was slightly more rigid and textured than the Maidstone, but not by much.
with both I was fighting with the hard charcoal, trying to get the texture I wanted and not quite succeeding.
Lately I feel I've gotten the hang of the Canson Recycled Sketch paper, but better rag papers are still a fight. A big part of that I suspect is having now done several hundred sketches on the Canson: I believe it takes that to really know a paper, and learn how to work with its qualities.

2nd entry for Mar 8, 2012

For the early part of Thursday evening I was enjoying being at the opening of the exhibition by the TSA Professional skills class. Called `Nextus', the show is up at Gallery 1313 until March 18th.  The opening was thronged with happy people, which was great to see.
After a happy hour or so there, I stopped in to the last part of the TSA's drawing session. A-  was working. These are all on 22 x 30" sheets of Maidstone paper, with a quite light graphite underlayer.  I found some flat sticks of the same hard Nobel charcoal I've been using in round woodless pencil forrmat.  The square sticks handle a wee bit different, but entail a lot less fissling and mess with sanding, which is a plus. These were all done with just a hard square Nobel stick.
It wasn't my best night, but the results are not dissimilar to middling good drawings on newsprint that I have done.

6th entry for January 17, 2010

These are a 20-minute newsprint study and a 22-minute back study on Japanese paper, which finished off the evening.

3rd entry for January 3, 2010

These were three 15-minute poses that wrapped up that Sunday morning. For the last two I used 24" x 36" sheets of Japanese paper, rather than newsprint.

Once again, anyone looking for life drawing instruction in the Toronto area, I teach beginner and intermediate classes starting in the next week - you can find details here.