2nd entry for July 28, 2014

These are two 15-minute studies and a 35-minute one. All three are done with water-soluble graphite on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Montval watercolour paper.
The top one is moderately strong, but it was not a good night at all for getting Shel's likeness. I think it's true of many visual artists that for each person some faces are easy to `get' and others harder. For me, Shel's likeness is one I have a harder time with. The last pose, a long one, was a semi-reclining pose leaning back and staring into the distance, and that night I couldn't think of anything to do with it. as a full-figure study (which I ultimately lay the blame at my feet for a lack of any creative compositional solution- surely they exist). I tried more of a portrait focus, but was too far away to accurately read details, and the best I could come up with is what's here, after a bunch of post-session reworking. It's still awkward and unsatisfying - not a keeper.
Some nights are like that.
(and my drawing has subsequently been bouncing back, I feel.)
Works that I do like I am now selecting and posting on a new Tumblr blog I started. It's up over 100 of the year's best studies, and has no whining or other extraneous details. just strong figure drawings, fast and extended. You can see what's posted here, at From The Stream.

3rd Entry for May 5, 2011

These are two 20-minute studies. By then I had found a chair to sit at, and could focus more on my drawing.  All the same, I was moving quite slowly - it wasn't an especially strong drawing night. But  D-   was doing good work.

2nd Entry for Mar 29, 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.)




The upper two images are done with charcoal on 18 x 24" cartridge paper, They, and the lower one are all 20-minute studies. The lower one is done with 8B graphite on Japanese paper.
I was gaining some degree of control of the charcoal in the longer poses, but my drawing was not at its best.  The pose S-  took at the end was the one I most connected with - it was an unusual angle, and lots of foreshortening and subtle values on her torso. The drawing is richer in terms of subtlety, but the graphite seems washed out beside the more intense charcoal.  Somewhere in between these two seems to lie my ideal medium.
Overall, I didn't feel it was one of my better drawing nights. I could have omitted most of these, but I think it is worth sharing some of the weak studies as well as the good ones, to underscore that you can't have one without the other.  Also, I had some personal matters that were weighing on me from the day before, which may have been part of why S-    looks particularly blue in a lot of these.

And as I've said before, anyone who knows of a 22 x 30" inexpensive acid-free cartridge paper with a nice tooth, please let me know...

1st entry for November 10, 2009

On the Tuesday night the Drawing room session was cancelled, so I went over to Artists 25. It wasn't an especially good drawing night for me. weak enough that I was suspecting that I might be succumbing to a bit of a cold. The full-figure studies of C- are about 15-minute each, the profile 5 minutes, and the head study about 20 minutes.
In drawing, I like the look of C- as a person - his face shows the traces of his life lived. Most of the studies from that night weren't worth recording or posting.