Entry for Nov 16, 2014

On the Sunday afternoon I was at the ARC studio, andAndrea was working that day. These are a 2-hour study above and a 40-minute one below.
One thing I find with the water-soluble graphite is that it is diffcult aand slow to build up big dark passages. As an experiment I used diluted india ink washes on these initially, to establish 'bed values'  in the darker areas. On top of that I worked with water-soluble graphite pencils and Artgraf washes to add in skin tones and details. It seems a good marriage; the ink washes block in deep values very readily. It does mean the preliminary drawing is a commitment, though, as the ink cannot be retracted or moved like the graphites.
These are both ink washes, water-soluble pencila nd Artgraf washes and some additional graphite shading on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Montval watercolour paper.

5th Entry for Aug 7, 2011

These are 15-minute studies, both also done with compressed charcoal on cartridge paper.  For the lower one, A-    's pose struck me as strongly evoking Cycladic statuettes. I thought the juxtaposition of a stylized Cycladic head with an anatomical body might be interesting.

1st entry for May 29, 2011

On the Sunday I came out for the longer 3-hour sitting.  M-    was working.  He hails from the U.S, and travels a lot doing art modelling work. I hadn't come across him before.  I was continuing to explore making `incomplete', fragmentary studies. Over the two and a bit hours I was there, I was able to get these four done.
They are all on sheets of 18 x 24" cartridge paper, done with hard compressed charcoal.

Keeping things in scale gets tricky in a different way when only drawing a portion of a body. Moreover, for me, trying to have a face be successfully incomplete is particularly challenging.

2nd Entry for Oct. 15, 2010

These are 10-minute studies.   For the lowest study, I tried a slightly different tack. I feel quite confident about drawing back views of people, so it is a comfortable space to experiment from. On this one, I started by setting down the contours left-handed, and then setting down shading with my right hand.
Being right-handed, the left-hand lines have a more wobbly, edgy quality to counterpoint with the smooth shading.

4th entry for April 9, 2009

These poses were all in the two-minute range. P- 's experience is more in dance than in circus work, and so she was stretching her experiments in interacting with the fabric.

2nd entry for April 7, 2009

It wasn't the best night for likenesses, but I was playing with proportions in ways I don't usually do. Having drawn J- numerous times, i feel less of an urhency to record him exactly `as is'. These are one 5-minute and two 10-minute poses.