5th entry for May 18, 2010

These were a 10-minute and a 15-minute pose that ended the evening. I was pleased to have made it through to the end of the night.

6th entry for November 24, 2009

These were both 10-minute poses, and they finished off the evening. As has been the case on other evenings of the aerial drawing sessions, ten minutes gets into diminishing returns category; the studies start looking overworked.

2nd entry for October 13, 2009

These were the last 2 poses of the evening - a 20-minute reclining pose and a 25-minute standing pose. It seemed quite a long time for H- to sustain the pose with her arms outstretched up high like that, but it was her choice. Because of the stretch of her arms I figured the pose would occupy a square space, and set her lower on my page. I miscalculated & ran out of room for her feet (guess I could have continued on another sheet).

I have been drawing H- many times through the years, some times more successful than others. Towards the start of this pose, she had a mischevious smile that was a flashback to her younger, even more carefree self. That helped to dispel a degree of rote-ness that can set in when drawing someone very familiar.

6th Entry for January 11, 2009

Being a glutton for figure drawing, I followed up the morning & afternoon with Z- by returning to the TSA to work some more that evening. It was an upsy-downsy night. The drawing was erratic, and I couldn;t tell if it was an incipient cold, fatigue, or a combo of both of those. Still, H- is a good model, an even if the results varied, I was enjoying the being there.
These are 2-minute studies.

2nd Entry for January 9, 2009

These were 15-minute poses. On the one I used up most of the time on drawing his face & expression. In the other one, he tried to keep a pole raised above his arms. After 5 minutes it had sagged, as I expected, from upright to pointing downwards. I- is an animator, and fond of caricature, so I figured I should do something with his staff. In retrospect, a gondolier might have worked, or harpooning a whale, but it was the St George & the Dragon motif that came to mind, so I ran a little with it.

Entry for Jan 8. 2009

I only got out to the tail end of a Thursday night session at the TSA where G- was working. The shading was confident, but proportions were a little slippy in places.

These are, top to bottom, a 15-, 20- , and a 25- minute study.

I was impressed by her stamina in maintaining the 20-minute pose in particular. The stress was making a lot of muscles show in her back.

6th Entry for December 18, 2008

These were 5-minute poses. Where some of the other performers who have worked at Diane's studio spent more time completely off the ground, A- made good use of interaction with the floor as a part of her poses.

With the relative luxury of 5 minutes to draw, there is more time for shading & anatomical specifics. In my mind, though, the movement and spontaneity of a fast gesture pose underlies the longer drawing, in an intuitive way. I believe gesture studies, among other
things, instill a `muscle memory' of the proportions of body parts to one another, and how they move & bend.

1st entry for December 14th

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Having weathered the TSA's Open House, once again I got to go drawing. On Sunday, B- was working. He has pushed himself to develop really impressive stamina, being able now to sustain things like on-handed handstands, etc.

These are 1-minute poses. Watching a person doing things this remarkable, I really want to document what was transpiring, to say to others "this is what I was seeing" through the sketches. In the process, it is excellent drawing practice.