1st entry for Aug 3, 2013

On the Saturday I was three for three in working with Polina, as it was her at the Sackville open session as well. I was doing further testing with the Pentel brushpen. These are a 1-minute study at top, two 5-minute ones after and some 10-minute ones below.
The top three are done on 18 x 24" sheets of 18 x 24" cartridge paper, and the lower four are on Canson Recycled Sketch paper sheets, also 18 x 24".

Entry for Aug 2, 2013

Friday night was a materials exploration night over at Artists 25. On the Thursday night, I was sitting beside Leonard, who was using a Pentel Brushpen. In his hands it yielded a very fine and varied set of crisp black marks. I've tried Sakura brushpens in the past, but the felt tip they have frays very quickly for me. The Pentel pen uses a (permanent) pigment ink and has synthetic parallel bristles which I'm told can take quite a lot of punishment and hold their point. And they take refills, which is cheaper in the long run. I also thought it might be a way into still smaller drawings.
When a big studio is available, drawing large feels great, and is more dramatic to look at. But in terms of storage and for working in more cramped settings, achieving an intimate small scale would be nice.

It was Polina at artists 25 as well, doing a 2.5 hour sitting, as they do on the Fridays. I was working on 11" x 15" sheets of Canson XL series Watercolour paper. 11 x 15 is hardly tiny, but for me, it feels  like a postage stamp. (on the upside, after this 18 x 24 paper starts to seem generously sized, and 22 x 30 is huge... it's all relative. Like some materials sheepdog I keep nudging myself into ever smaller picture fields of late. But a really small image can be like a jewel or a secret, if done right, and maybe sensible in an era of compressed living spaces.)
These studies are neither jewel-like or holding much in the way of secrets. The first 1-hour study was an exploration of contour and rendering through contour hatching. The marks are informative but somewhat mechanical. I have been looking at Andrew Loomis's work of late, and this may have been a  bit of a response or maybe exorcising of that. Also, Polina's head was initially a little over 10% too big for her body; I photoshopped that to scale.
The second 50-minute one used a range of Copic warm gray markers, more strategic brushpen and some after-the fact india ink spatter. The markers do provide more subtle information about surfaces at the expense of a brightness in the image. Black lines can be an expressive tool in their own right.
But used in conjunction with lighter value shading, black marks tend to jump out very easily. Ideally for my tastes they would dance and play among the other tones, like having just the right amount of a strong spice in a recipe. Used too much or too overall, I feel it's easy for black lines to nail down the last of the life from a figurative image. (I've photoshopped the original head in this study only 8 - 10% smaller - it was a too-big head night for me, maybe owing to the smaller picture field- usually it goes the other direction.)

The mix of Copic and black brushpen also clarifies some of Polina's anatomical structure. You can learn more about ulnas, brachioradialis and hand extensors, femurs and the common point of insertion of inner hamstrings and sartorius muscles all week from Aug 19-23. (I'm just sayin'...)
You can enroll for all that here.

3rd entry for Aug 1, 2013

(Quick reminder about my Anatomy intensive course coming up Aug 19-23 at the TSA. For registration and more info, click here and scroll down to course 702)

These are some of the 5-minute and 10-minute studies from that night. The Copic markers allow for very controlled build-up of values and I can get some very good lighting things going with them, But I've been feeling like there is a grittiness or edge lacking that I also feel I want in an image. In the the fast images lately I've also been investigating a fairly thick black Sakura marker line, which is for me a challengingly blunt instrument to draw with.
I had the notion the some indian ink spatters - especially on the marker line drawings, would add a randomizing element and make the images less stark, so I tried that out the next night. The top two use slightly diluted ink in a small spritzer bottle, while the bottom one was spattered with a knife and toothbrush. For the middle one I cut a frisket mask and sprayed the whole page. then took it off and very lightly resprayed.
The effects are interesting, and worked best on the lowest one.
Apart from an airbrush, anyone have suggestions as how to get a regular distribution of very fine dots? As you can see, the pump spray bottles I tried tended to give a mix of fine interspersed with bigger droplets. I'd welcome any good tips.

2nd entry for Aug 1, 2013

These are, from the top, a 15-minute study, a 20-minute one, a 10-minute one and another 15-minute one at bottom. All are done with warm gray Copic inks on 18 x 24" sheets of paper. The top three are on Canson Mixed Media paper, and the bottom one is on Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

1st entry for Aug 1, 2013

( A quick reminder that my annual Anatomy and Figure Drawing weeklong intensive at the TSA is happening Aug 19 - 23. Finding event specifics for summer courses is a little trickier now on the TSA website, but you can shortcut to the info/enrollment page by clicking here. Just scroll down to course 702)

On the Thursday evening I got out to the TSA to draw.  Polina was working there that night, and these are a 1-minute study at top and three 10-minute ones below. The lighting was principally a single lamp stand not far off my right side. I find I am liking that more frontal lighting these days, where shadows reinforce contours. Also the single spot light didn't tend to equally illuminate all of her figure, which often created inadvertent areas of focus away from her head/face.
These are all done with a range of warm gray Copic markers on 18 x 24"sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper, except the top one done with a Sakura Graphic pen on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.

3rd entry for July 28, 2013

(Knowing about the muscles and bones beneath the skin can aid in drawing people. From August 19 - 23 I teach a 5-day all-day intensive course at the TSA on Anatomy and Figure Drawing. I don't recommend it for absolute beginners, but if you've done some figure drawing (or lots of it) than it is a valuable tour - or review - of the skeleton and major muscle groups, put into practice with lots of drawing from models. You can enroll online here; just scroll down to the 702 Anatomy intensive listing.)

These are two 15-minute studies above, a 20-minute one below, and a roughly 10-minute below that. They are all done with a range of warm gray Copic markers. The second from bottom is on an 18 x 24" sheet of Cansn Mixed Media paper, and the other three are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.
The background elements in the bottom one were added after, mostly with 10% and 30% broad markers. The big markers are well-suited to experimenting with subtle environment treatments.

2nd entry for July 28, 2013

These are 10-minute studies, done mostly with broad-tip Copic warm gray markers and a couple of darker thinner brush markers for contour information. All are on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.