4th entry for April 15, 2014

These are a 5-minute study at top, two 10-minute ones below that and a 15-minute one at bottom.
The top one is Pitt pen on 18 x 24" Canson 1557 paper; the next two are water-soluble graphite on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Montval watercolour paper, and the bottom one is on an 18 x 24" sheet of 150 lb Maidstone rag paper.
My drawing wasn't at its sharpest that day, and I was definitely hit and miss with Diane's likeness, but it was a good workout as always. The washes of water-based graphite add a lot of shading drama quickly  to the studies. It was a pleasure to get to draw Diane this time out.
If you want to explore the potential of ink - in line and as washes - I'm teaching a 3-day workshop at the TSA May 12 to 14. We'll try different drawing tools and combinations, and there will be a model to work with for part of the final day. You can enroll for it here.

3rd entry for April 15, 2014

These are two more 3-minute studies above and three 5-minute ones below.  All are done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson 1557 paper. At 110 lbs, it's slightly heavier and also whiter than the XL Drawing paper I've been using, but I have been finding it doesn't t play so well with the ink (a little too absorbent, and it is not heavy enough that it doesn't buckle with washes.)
I'm finding the 140 lb. Montval watercolour paper is better overall for line work (pen stays really crisp,) and for washes.
Starting May 21st, I'm offering a special 6-week Perspective for Drawing course at the TSA on Wednesday mornings, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  It will cover the central perspective concepts that come into play with observational drawing. It features short lectures, handouts and lots of drawing time.
It's just uaernder $300 and you can enroll for it here.

4th entry for Apr 1, 2014

These are two 5-minute studies at top, two 10-minute ones after that and a 15-minute one at the end. All are on 18 x 24" sheets of paper, with a Pitt calligraphy pen. The first and third are on Canson XL Drawing paper, the 2nd and 4th on Canson Montval watercolour paper, and the bottom one is on a 150 lb. Somerset rag paper. The bottom two have some water-soluble graphite in conjunction with the pen marks.
A couple of my 10-week classes that aren't running at TSAthis term means that there is room for some special 5-week and 6-week classes... keep posted on details of these coming shortly.

3rd entry for Apr 1, 2014

These are some 2-minute and 3-minute studies. There were others, but they didn't pass the bar of posting at all. I was struggling a bit with rustiness and too-dry pens that day. The Collective Space is a big room, and Kadri was working with the depth of it a lot, moving from up close to leaning on the back walls.
These are all persnickety Pitt calligraphy-point pens on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch and Canson XL Drawing papers.
If you want to learn about drawing people from life yourself (or shake up old rusty skills of your own, ) there is a Saturday morning 10-week course coming up in about a week that I teach at the TSA. You can still sign up for it here.

2nd entry for Apr 1, 2014

These are some 1-minute studies, Pitt pen on 18  24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper

4th entry for March 4th

These are two 5-minute studies, two 10-minute ones and a 15-minute one at bottom. The top four are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL Drawing paper, and the last one is on 150 lb Maidstone rag paper.
The top four are a Pitt pen, and the lower one is water-soluble graphite.
Michelle's use of a puffy hooded white vest was a change of pace- so often aerial costumes are about maximum body freedom and displaying body form. The hooding reminded me a tiny bit of costuming I've seen and liked from the urban dance company Gadfly over the last few years.

If you're looking to expand and push your own life drawing skills beyond an introductory level, I teach a Beyond Basic Life Drawing course Thursday nights in the Spring term at the TSA. It's $460 for the 10 weeks (including model fees) and if you sign up before March 31st with the promo code SPRING40, you can save $40 on it. You can register for it here.

3rd entry for Mar 4, 2014

These are 3-minute studies, done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

2nd entry for Mar 4, 2014

These are some 1-minute and 2-minute studies, also done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

I like the challenge of setting people down in a very short timespan, and I find drawing people at Diane's studio takes the life drawing basics up a couple of notches, using all the knowledge gained in drawing people in a regular life drawing session, accelerating it and turning it sideways or upside-down and adding some drapery. It's a really engaging workout..

If you're a beginner or don't have much familiarity with drawing people, I'm teaching an Intro Life Drawing class starting mid-April at the Toronto School of Art. It starts with absolute basics, and for the Spring term will put the emphasis on working with shorter studies - up to roughly 20 minutes. It's $460 for 10 weeks, 9-noon weekly starting April 19. If you enter the promo code SPRING40, you can save $40 until March 31st. You can sign up here.

1st entry for Mar 4, 2014

On the following Tuesday, Michelle was working. These are some 1-minute studies, done with Pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

(Side note: if you've noticed that images were displaying quite gray of late, so did I. The issue turned out to be an `auto-enhance'' feature for pictures that Google recently threw in as a default setting, which could only be turned off by joining Google Plus to access the relevant settings menu.
`Auto-enhance' in this case is a bit of a misnomer- it should have been named `Auto-make-images-look-crappy', or `auto-degrade'.
It's turned off now, and a number of posts re-loaded with un`enhanced' versions of the images.
Thanks, Google...)

3rd entry for Feb 11, 2014

These are four 10-minute studies above, a 10-minute one below that and a 15-minute one at bottom. These are done with the same Pitt calligraphy point pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson XL drawing paper.
It wasn't my strongest drawing day, but Sandra was doing a solid job.

2nd entry for Feb 11, 2014

These are some 2-minute and 3-minute studies, all done with Pitt calligraphy point pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.