2nd entry for Aug. 5, 2015

These are two 7-minute studies above and two 10-minute ones below. The line drawings are Pitt pen on Canson Recycled Sketch paper, and the wash drawing is water-soluble graphite on watercolour paper. All are 18 " x 18"
the top and bottom ones had a quick graphite sketch, and the middle two are direct, no preliminaries. But the watercolour graphite is in pencil form, so initially putting it on has a loose, sketching stage built in that gets obscured when water is applied.

1st entry for Aug 5, 2015

On the Wednesday night I got out to the Gladstone Hotel drawing session. Denise was working, and these are a 1-minute study up top, a few 2-minute and 3-minute studies, and a 5-minute one at the bottom. All are Pitt pen on 18 x 18" sheets of Canson Recycled Sketch paper. There were a number of other short studies, but none worth sharing.

3rd entry for Aug 2, 2015

These are three 15-minute studies done with water-soluble graphite. The top one is on Revere rag paper, and the lower two are on Strathmore Watercolour paper, all 18 x 24".

2nd entry for Aug 2, 2015

Not every drawing day is a good one. These are four 5-minute studies above, and two 10-minute ones below. It was not a good day for proportions staying in control, and I was having to work more slowly and redraw contours a lot to get them to work with  Pat's forms. The 5's are done with no preliminary marks, which for me makes the drawing especially high-focus as an activity, and more stressy in the moment - at least when things aren't flowing. With ink there's no retraction of marks, so every moment hold the potential for collapse if my attention or hand wavers.
10 minutes and up I have time enough to do some looser sketching, to block in key forms in pencil. I try to keep that to 2-3 minutes, or there's no time left. Loose pencil marks are open-ended, non-stressy and help catch the most egregious proportion problems. But losing the feeling of drawing on the edge of a cliff means the ink lines are different when aided by a pencil sketch; they can lose some of their tension and `bite' as marks.
An idea that interests me currently is what is the least amount of pencil sketch that would support a line drawing the most, and eat the least time in the bargain. Drawing things twice over is redundant; what is the most organic effective shorthand for me? What info do I absolutely need, and what can I fill in with a more detailed line?

1st entry for Aug 2, 2015

On the Sunday morning I got out to the Jam Factory Arts Collective session, where Pat was working. Really dynamic gestures, but my fast drawing is distinctly rusty. I've been getting into doing longer studies, but in the process have barely done any fast drawing for a couple of weeks. Top to bottom these are mix of 1-minute, 2-minute and 3-minute studies, only half of which are included, as the rest were too awkward.
These are all pitt pen on 18 x 24" sheets of Canson Recycled sketch paper.

Entry for Aug 1, 2015

On the following Saturday I had a teaching break and was able to spend a longer time on a study of Susan at Artists 25.
This is a roughly 4-hour study of essentially the same pose/setup from a different angle. Like the previous week it is a graphite under-sketch for placement and proportion, with India ink washes for base values and oil-based pencil for detail and tonal graduations. It is on an 18 x 24" sheet of Revere rag paper.
This one holds together fairly well and edges into fussed-over, but worked out all right, I feel at this point.
The Artists 25 space is a little dark and busy with stuff. That wasn't what I had in mind this time and it's hard to work against that.
One of the pluses of a repeat pose is that it is a chance to test out different variants on the picture being made. If something happens only once, I have a stronger impulse to use the means at my disposal in known ways to record it. If it happens more times, I can experiment more.

Entry for July 25, 1015

On the Saturday afternoon I went over to Artists 25. This is a 2-hour study of Susan, done with a graphite pencil initial sketch, India ink underlayer for base vlues and oil-base pencil on top for detail and deeper values. It's on an 18 x24" sheet of Revere multi-media rag paper.
With these longer studies with wash and oil-base pencil I've been trying to give more consideration to the framing of the figure and relative levels of value/detail in the drawings.
I continue to like the effect of the masked borders within the sheet, rather than a total bleed out to all four edges.