2nd entry for July 12,13, 16 & 19

More studies from the Anandam rehearsals. Most came from the first two dates. Increasingly on the later dates I gave over time to taking some movement clips on my camera, as the continual motion was excellent, but frustrating too - the space between a pure `interior' art response and a documentary one.
I was getting looser as I went. The left side of the third ones down was a few minutes of four dancers slowly rolling down a staircase towards me, just continuous line tracking movement. Those were a breakthrough as far as `ego-less' drawing went, and the studies that followed are a little fresher for it.

A more complete collection from these sessions is up on facebook, and can be found here.

Drawing a lot of fast studies can be a good way to break into that unselfconscious state of drawing, as there isn't enough time to be looking over your own shoulder. Good practice for a few things. Every Saturday afternoon in August, there's a 3-hour all-gesture drawing session at the TSA. No instruction, just masses of poses from 30 seconds up to a maximum of 5 minutes. It's $10, pay-as-you-go, and runs 1:30 - 4:30. It's only in August, so get it while you can.

1st entry for July 12,13, 16 & 19

On several days I spent a couple of hours each as a visitor to the Anandam Dance Theatre's Divergent Dances for Windows and Walls show. As I have indicated in the past, I feel that figure drawing and aerial work complement each other like chocolate & peanut butter. And I dig aerial work and really dig contemporary dance. So put those all together in one place and me with a small sketchbook, and I feel really privileged.
These were rehearsals, so there were no set poses, and some down times while people stroked their chins. It was all a real challenge , and many of these are effectively memory studies. I took a little watercolour box and some pencils and motored away (water media seemed the faster option, but I was reluctant to use it inside the Bata Shoe Museum in case there were spills. As I indicated elsewhere, attempting these seemed to add a little more gusto and freshness to the life-drawing sessions that followed them.
One point to acknowledge - the Canson sketchbook I used has 7 x 10" pages, and, except when I got confused, I only used one side of each sheet. But for presentation's sake I've pasted pages into the 2-page spreads you see here, and edited a number out.

4th entry for July 16, 2012

These are two 5-minute studies above, two 10-minute ones and a 15-minute study of E-  below. They are all done with hard Nobel charcoal on a variety of Durotone papers, all 23 x 34" sheets.

During the week of Aug 20 - 24, I'm teaching a 5-day intensive course in anatomy for figure drawing. It's a good 9-4 daily crash course in key bodily structures, backed up by lots of drawing time. More details are here on the TSA website.

3rd entry for July 16, 2012

These are three 3-minute studies and a 5-minute one below.  The 3's are on 18 x 24" Canson Recycled Sketch paper, and the 5-minute one is on 23 x 34" Durotone Butcher White paper.
E-  was playing around with several ropes, and getting all Laocoon on us. Trying to keep up with all the escalating complexity was challenging.

2nd entry for July 16, 2012

These are 2-minute studies, done with hard Nobel compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper.

A reminder, too, that the all-gesture open life drawing session starts tomorrow (Aug 4) at the Toronto School of Art. 1:30 - 4:30,  $10 for the session, no instruction, no poses over 5 minutes.

1st entry for July 16, 2012

On the Monday I got back onto Sterling Ave, to the Drawing room session. E-  was working, and these are 1-minute and 2-minute studies.
The gesture drawing challenge of these sessions is excellent. If you can't make it out on Mondays, at the TSA I'll be hosting 3-hour drop-in uninstructed all-gesture life sessions. No aerial work, but lits of good fast drawing challenge - nothing over 5 minutes. They start this Saturday, Aug 4, from 1:30 - 4:30, and run the same time every Saturday through the month of August.

4th entry for July 15, 2012

These are 15-minute studies. They are all hard compressed Nobel charcoal on sheets of the darker-toned Durotone White paper. The top and bottom ones are on 17 x 23" sheets, and the middle one is on a 23 x 34" sheet.