5th Entry for July 4, 2011

After a break/costume change, these three 10-minute studies wrapped up the evening. Even at 10 minutes, all the textures and surfaces pose extra challenge.
Brett, the MC of the sessions, made a teasing remark about my `big' paper at one point. Relative to a lot of people who go there, an 18 x 24" pad does look big.  But for me, it still feels like a tiny piece of real estate to be drawing on.  Fitting a person from  head to toe I find very hard to do at this size, especially when people are standing.

These sessions are running each Monday through this summer.  They form part of the satellite activities associated with the "This Is Paradise/Place As A State Of Mind" exhibition taking place at MOCCA. That show is celebrating the history and role of the Cameron House on the Queen St. art scene through the last three decades.  This whole project has been curated by Herb Tookey, from the Cameron House, and Rae Johnson, who was a teacher of mine at Art's Sake Inc, where I first went to school.  She was at the session, and it was a pleasure to run into her there.
For more information about the MOCCA show, visit here.
For photo-documentation of the evening's session, check here.

4th Entry for July 4, 2011

These are mostly 5-minute studies. All are done on sheets of 18 x 24" cartridge paper with hard compressed charcoal.  The second study from the top is an amalgamation of two 5-minute poses that M-  took- the head and scatf from one, and the body from another later that faced the same direction.
The bottom one was a 10-minute study.
I find that 5 minutes is a really frustrating timespan for me when drawing people: it's a little too long for a gesture study, but too short to get head to toe detail down. The main benefit I see is that having my reach exceed my possible grasp stretches and exercises me. 5-minute poses also serve to make 10 minutes seem like a luxurious amount of time by comparison.

3rd Entry for July 4, 2011

These are 5-minute studies, hard charcoal on 18 x 24" sheets of cartridge paper..  It was challenging, trying to get the synthetic-looking  juxtaposition of plastic wig, lashes and glitter and incorporate his particular character as well. So for the longer poses I tended to get fixated more on drawing faces.
The final one was 5 minutes, but was followed by a break where I worked on additional shading and background.

Sessions like Sketchy's are interesting because on the one hand, the visuals are so striking that I want to go into realist recorder mode, as this person in this look and these poases may never happen again, so I feel I ought to document that. But who says all things need to be documented for posterity?

Also, it is a descriptive challenge - can I get the feel and the look if all this well documented, in the time available?  That is good exercise.  But the mix of costumes and poses like these can also be a catalyst to evolve something more personal, an area I don't investigate so much these days.

But where I am investigating close-focus fragmentary imagery through other drawing sessions, it is a good balance, to get loose and free in these sessions, so as not to slide into excessive preciousness overall.

2nd entry for July 4, 2011

These are also (generous) 1-minute studies, all done with hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.
In rapid studies like these of people in heels, a trace of the influence on me of my teacher Robert Markle surfaces, in my estimation.

1st entry for July 4, 2011

Z-  tipped me off that the Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School sessions were re-opening for this summer as a last hurrah encore. It kicked off with a free special session at which  I was able to secure a seat.
The model for the night was M-     , a member of  the Boylesque burlesque troupe.

As usual, the Sketchy's sessions involved all the regular challenges of pose, gesture, character, plus some striking outfits and wigs. All in a space filled with the extra distraction of dance music and  multi-tracked chatter all around. I find it an extra-challenging setting to draw in because of all that - to find a still space from which to draw in the sensory stimulus storm.


But maybe that is to miss part of the point. Maybe there's something to letting the storm of music and visuals carry me, to let go of the desire to control the image's development and display technical proficiency, and see what emerges from that. That happens to some degree in the gesture poses like these.
These were some (generous) 1-minute poses. Done with hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.

3rd Entry for June 28, 2011

These 3 studies occupied the balance of the time I worked with Z-  that day.
Each is done with hard compressed charcoal on different sheets of Japanese paper, all roughly 18 x 24"
Each was roughly 30 - 35 minutes in initial drawing. followed by an hour or two of background shading later.

2nd Entry for June 28, 2011

I wanted a couple of really short poses, to shake me up a bit more.  These were two 30-second studies, also hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24" cartridge paper.
No time to think or get fussy in that timeframe.