3rd entry for May 3, 2015

The top-most study here was the point at which my efforts to tune out the improv music at the Jam Factory Collective session snapped*. After struggling to make connected lines of Denis' body, I started scrawling and generally attacking the page with pens and a brushpen.
Jason Kenemy's music was shifting and polyrhythmic. I could have spent an intersting hour or two drawing my response to his music with no model. Drawing Denis as I'm accustomed has a different set of slower internal rhythms and would have been fine on its own as well. Trying to do those simultaneously just wasn't working, so I gave over to the music. For the two drawings after that, I was using big sticks of graphite - often held `mitt' style in my fist, to put bold scrawly lines in keeping with the music's tempos.
After that I was able to be more loose and free about the drawing. That I feel is ultimately a good thing. The session was like an art class where an obstacle to working on autopilot is thrown in. The upside is that I started getting a lot less precious about the drawing. So all whining aside, it was worthwhile.

* and I suspect, the most interesting drawn response I've done in a while, which I'm going to think about.

If you want to get a taste of Jason's music, you can hear some excerpts online. From the 2:00 mark on the 3rd "littleBits and piano" piece is where I was getting wound up; the moody electronics were fine - it was the piano atop it that kept jarring. The other three tracks underscore his adept and interesting playing. (just more interesting than I thought I wanted .)  2 hours of solo piano improv is pretty impressive.

The top two are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. The lower four are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Watercolour paper, mostly using a big hexagonal Lyra water-soluble graphite crayon the thickest, least precious drawing tool I had.

1st entry for July 20, 2013

On the Sunday, Meredith was working over at the Daniels Spectrum building. I had carved the wide nibs of the extra-broad Copic markers into a slightly curved profile, so I could vary the width of the marks more fluidly. It made for much more free handling for me, and most of the values here were done with  broad 10%, 30% and 50% markers, plus a bit of 40%, 60% and 90% added with thinner brush markers for dark values and elaboration of detail.
These are a 5-minute study up top and three 10-minute ones below, all done on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

3rd entry for June 14, 2013

These are a 10-minute and a 15-minute study. The top one is black Sakura Graphic marker and cool gray Copic markers on 168 x 24" bond paper, while the lower one os the same Sakura marker with cool gray Copic markers.
The top one is especially strong as a figure study, I feel. It is a dramatic pose, and after all the improv and risk discussion I'd heard I was being willfully choppy with the black marks I started with. It is possible for me to have things too much in the `right' place; a little rougher can carry more edge, when done well.

5th Entry for Oct. 16, 2011

The study above was 15 minutes, and the one below was 20 minutes, but I worked on each during the breaks that followed them. Each had a light  underdrawing of willow charcoal that I wiped into the surface, followed by some highlight exposure with a kneaded eraser, and then overdrawing with hard U-Art compressed charcoal.
The willow charcoal really picked up on any finger oil on the paper when wiped, but also afforded a bit of quickly set down `infill' of the paper grain, to tone the harder charcoal's texture down in places. At 15 minutes, that's a rush, but at 20 minutes and up, it is more do-able.
The lower study of B- is nicely rendered in the body, but isn't quite anchored or grounded enough onto the space he is sitting on, I feel.

2nd Entry for Oct.16, 2011

In the afternoon, I worked on two studies of T-  . The upper one was approx. 2 hours, while the lower one was roughly 40 minutes. Both are using hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.
I was experimenting with varying the `infill' of the paper's surface grain. In the opper one, T-  's figure was drawn directly, and the surrounding areas were blended down into the paper. The surfaces she sits on use direct shading over top of vayring intensities of blended local value. In the lower image, T-   's figure was drawn, the charcoal blended and erased to establish tonal areas, then overdrawn with direct shading. The background is just direct shading no blending.

3rd Entry for June 17, 2011

(Comments are always very welcome from any of you who visit this blog.  But if you want to get a hold of me regarding other queries, or have an interest in perhaps acquiring something, I can be reached by writing to:  
thomasdraws (at) yahoo (dot) ca
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regards,
Thomas)

The final 15-minute study of G-  that night was a more playful experiment. At the nearby Dollarama  I had picked up some sparkle-covered tissue sheets to wrap a friends' bitrthday present, and tried doing a charcoal drawing on that. The tissue was very delicate, and began to shred in places, but was argeeably smooth to work on.
I used a harder compressed charcoal for this. If I was going to use more of that I'd try out soft compressed charcoal or soft vine charcoal; they would be gentler on the surface.

3rd Entry for June 12, 2011

These are two 5-minute studies above, and a 10-minute one below. All are done with hard compressed charcoal on cartridge paper.

The first 5-minute one was an experiment: I tried drawing on a small (12 x 18" sheet in the middle of a larger pad, so the drawing could run effortlessly out the edges of the page. I tend to choosa a size and stick with it for a while, so to shift scales means being much more on the ball.  I have a theory, though, that in trying to do some drawings on very small sheets, then shifting up to a larger paper makes it seem like a larger piece of real estate. Things in drawing are relative.

The second 5-minute study is on an 18 x 24" sheet, but the scale of head to body was askew. The 10-minute one is also on an 18 x 24" sheet. It was a very dramatic pose, good lighting, and I feel it is an especially strong study. I feel it ranks among my strongest figure studies.

I have noticed a correlation between throwing challenges into the drawing process and the degree of focus in the drawings that follow them. I think it is because one's brain is more awake and engaged.

2nd Entry for May 27, 2011

For the balance of the session, I explored the idea of `vignettes', or fragmentary images, that had suggested itself recently.  These are two 15-minute studies above, and two 20-minute ones below, each done on 18 x 24" cartridge paper with hard compressed charcoal.

Some of the considerations in these are anonymity versus portraiture, universality versus specificity, and ambiguity versus identifiability.*
Drawing only a portion of the figure has the effect of focusing attention on the parts pictured. As such, I'm atttracted at this point to choosing areas that are less self-evident. Not so much hands or faces on their own. Those are for me the symbolically self-sufficient bits. It's maybe more interesting to draw attention to some of the more easily overlooked areas of bodies.
I have an idea that images like these these will work well in the company of each other, but may not function so well as discrete, independent pieces.

But it's an interesting area to explore for a bit...

* I realise that in phrasing this "x " versus "y", I'm presenting these as opposing binaries, which needn't be  a given.  Nor are things like 'universality' and `specificity'  necessarily points on the same continuum, though I'm thinking of then that way for myself.

4th Entry for May 9, 2011

These are two 15-minute studies of Z-   .
So far, much of my output drawing from life of late has been aiming to set down the person's whole body in the time available.  The potential of more consciously cropped compositions is not something I've explored, though it does hold interest.
I had the idea of `vignettes', centering on areas other than heads and faces, so I tried that out a bit on these two poses. Where and how to have the edges fade out was challenging.

These are done with hard compressed charcoal on sheets of 18 x 24" cartridge paper.

3rd Entry for Apr 29, 2011

After a longer break, M-  did some further gesture poses. I noticed that he was maintaining some points of support in the same place ( like one foot) as he shifted poses, so I put three 1-minute studies onto the top sheet.
All of these are charcoal on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.

1st entry for Apr 1, 2011

(People looking for life drawing instruction - or basic perspective instruction - should take note that I have an intermediate/advanced life drawing class on Wednesday evenings starting in a few days at the TSA, and a perspective basics class on Tuesday mornings. Both run for 10 weeks, and you can get more info through the TSA website. There is still space for any interested students, and all ages of adults are welcome.)

I came back the next night, to continue exploring the woodless charcoal sticks I picked up.  K-  was working that evening. Above from top are a 5-minute study, two 10-minute studies, and a 15-minute one. These are all on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper.
I was having better luck handling the charcoal, but still working more slowly and having a harder time keeping the scale of the figures within the 18 x 24" paper, which really does feel like a tiny playing field to work on.
Based on what I had noticed in reworking the previous night's drawings a bit.I also tried adding some passes with the side of an 8B graphite stick to the lower two drawings. It did give them a broader value range, and more sculptural volume, but a little bit at the expense of a freshness and `airiness' within the images. Which makes me wonder if there is a point where a smaller amount of graphite would be just the right amount for these studies.

2nd Entry for Mar 31, 2011

(People looking for life drawing instruction - or basic perspective instruction - should take note that I have an intermediate/advanced life drawing class on Wednesday evenings starting in a few days at the TSA, and a perspective basics class on Tuesday mornings. Both run for 10 weeks, and you can get more info through the TSA website. There is still space for any interested students, and all ages of adults are welcome.)


These three longer studies of A-  are an initial experiment in mixing graphite with charcoal. The topmost one is a 15-minute study, initially done with charcoal on 18 x 24" cartridge paper. The two lower 20-minute studies were done with charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of different Japanese papers.
At first I found the `grain' of the charcoal on the paper too coarse. Later in my studio, I was looking at them and tried laying some broad graphite strokes atop the charcoal, and I liked how that gave a much wider tonal range, by filling in some of the white between the charcoal dots, as well as being a tiny bit like a blending stomp in effect.
I felt that was something interesting to pursue further.

Also, it was that night that Chris, the animator was sitting beside me. He once took one of my classes, and remarked, just before A-  started back to work, "Oh no, my teacher is sitting beside me. I better not f--- around now... ". So I wrote a note on it and passed it to him, informing him that I really hoped that my presence would spur him to f--- around more, not less.   After all, messing around is an important element of creative discovery.

4th Entry for Jan 7, 2011

These are 15-minute studies. The upper one wasn't a pose that did so much for me, so I tried filling the page with the portion of the figure shown here. The proportions went a bit out of whack, but it is quite dramatic, though I classify it as an experiment.
Both of these are graphite on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.

2nd Entry for Nov. 25, 2010

 

 

Above are two 5-minute studies; below are three 10-minute ones. They are all on 20 x 30" cartridge paper, but this time drawn with a black Prismacolor art stick.

I'm interested in the more intense black it imparts, relative to graphite, on the cartridge paper surface.

4th Entry for Nov. 7, 2010

These are two 5-minute studies above, and a 10-minute one below. As a variant on my usual working process, I tried drawing a scribbly desture sketch of the whole figure, then overlaying it with more shaded passages in places, but letting some areas stay loose.
They are also 8B graphite on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.

2nd Entry for Nov. 5, 2010

I switched over to 18 x 24" cartridge paper for these two 5-minute studies above and the 10-minute ones below. That worked much better - it picked up the 8B graphite more readily.

Compared to the 24 x 26" sheets I'm used to using, 18 x 24" feels like a much smaller playing field
The value range of these studies is better represented, I believe, if you click on them and view them enlarged.