Hanna Prone (and other things)

A great weekend down at the Mahone Bay Center, learning the basics of lithography. Thanks Dan O'Neill (who ran the workshop, and who made an enormously complicated subject comprehensible with a minimum of pain), Ed Porter (who kept things moving), and especially Sally Warren who organized it. As well as the rest of the print group there, who were very generous to a Halifax based interloper.

Hanna and I spent spent most of the afternoon today on a technical drawing which is rather dull, but something I had to work through, after having butchered the same pose on several previous sessions. She's amazingly patient. Maybe now I can actually do something interesting with it!

But the last hour or so was something livelier. The lighting is a bit odd because we arranged the spots for heat rather than visual effect, it was getting chilly in the studio. But they gave lots of interesting little highlights.

24"x36", NuPastel on Kraft paper:

Hanna 2-for-1

I've just gotten around to photographing the work Hanna and I have done this week; most of the work needs to be extensively redone. There's good weeks and bad! Unfortunately I won't be able to get back to these on the weekend, as I'm off to the lithography workshop at the Mahone Bay Center. How can Mahone Bay volunteers organize these things so well, and NSCAD can't at all?

These 2 drawings - which I rather like - were done Monday and Tuesday; the first was done with Hanna on Monday; the second is a reworking from the first. I did the second to correct drawing errors in the first and try and settle it down a bit, but in many ways I prefer the first (particularly Hanna's expression, and the looseness of the drawing).

Both are 24"x36", NuPastel on Kraft paper.

Off to the Beach

Ok, I haven't updated this in a week, that's very bad. To make matters worse, today was far too nice to spend the afternoon in the studio. So after a morning of destroying yet another drawing, it was off to the beach. Tomorrow I'll put up some of the newer drawings, and maybe a bit on the Freeman Dyson article, which was very much worth a read. Or maybe a little on Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality (thanks, Hanna!) and this article from Reason: People Who Live in the Shade. But meanwhile, an afternoon at Conrad's!




My best walking partner (as long as we don't meet any other dogs...)

Hanna Precarious Redux

Spent awhile today tarting it up....No model, but lots of sunlight.

Hanna Precarious

This was a beautiful day for drawing, with tons of sunshine filtering in through the blinds. Unfortunately because the studio room faces south, the light raced from one end of the couch to the other during the pose this afternoon. I probably should have worked faster and done three or four!

NuPastel on Kraft paper, 24"x36"

Hanna, a double session Monday

Monday is a long day; we worked together for the afternoon, and then Hanna modeled for the DASL night class. That left lots of drawings to work through today.

All work is NuPastel n 24"x36" Kraft paper.

This first is from the afternoon session.



The next two were the long poses from the DASL class, a half hour each.

This first one is missing the support behind her head, alas I got lost on Hanna's legs and only had time to sketch in where it should go....



We had been working on foreshortening during the afternoon, so this next position was pretty irresistible, what with things poking up everywhere. My favorite part is the little bit of fingers showing just above the breast, between the legs. The harsh light also lent itself to abstracting the figure; Tony-my-neighbor called it a Group of 7 knockoff :)

Hanna Distracted

This is the last from the Wednesday & Thursday sessions (or at least the last salvageable one). Though the drawing is a little hasty, I quite like the pose, Hanna was engaged with some pictures up on the wall, and not too concerned about forcing a pose. Could be interesting to extend the picture to the left, and put in an Olympia, or Venus of Urbino, or the central part of Courbet's Artist's Studio

Hanna and Shorty

Shorty does not approve of people sitting on his couch. But he can be bought off cheap!

24"x36", NuPastel on Kraft Paper.

Hanna

The collaboration with Hanna continues; we spent Wednesday & Thursday on these (and some others). Working with a single professional model over an extended period is very rewarding; it allows more experimentation (and yes, more mistakes!) but at the same time is more particular. For me this is important, as we move away from the traditional notion of the figure - as pretty much a design (i.e. a flower pot would do just as well), or simple eye candy - and towards something closer to portraiture, but of the full and complete individual.

These are all 24"x36", NuPastel on Kraft paper; the poses were 10-30 minutes.

Hanna

There's times when even I realize I have to dial back my loose drawing tendencies - even to the extent of doing Very Bad Things, like drawing from photos. But one must be willing to suffer for art!

Pencil on 11x14 Canson 65lb Sketch pad.

Katie, Steve

Saturday was the Findlay Center Drawing Group run by Richard Rudnicki; Monday was at the DASL life drawing sessions with Jane Schlosberg.
The model for the first was Katie (11x14, pencil on a Canson sketch pad):



This one took about half an hour, though it could have used a much longer time. I always find getting started on a Saturday morning such slow going!

Monday night, Steve posed again.. I find him very interesting to draw, particularly as he has a quite gentle presence and really carved body. Intriguing, but difficult to combine the two.

These are NuPastel on 24"x36" Kraft paper. The first two were 15 minute poses, the third was 35 minutes.

More Hanna

Hanna is sick today, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on posting.

These are all 24"x36" on Kraft paper, using NuPastel. They are pretty quick studies - usually the order of 20-40 minutes. We've been doing 4 hour work periods maybe twice a week, broken into a series of 20 minute session - generally repetions/variations of the same pose. They were done in various sessions over the last two weeks.

The studies themselves are preliminary to more finished work, which I hope to start once the weather is warm enough to open the windows. Using turps & linseed oil this time of year is not a great idea! But it gives me a chance to get to know the model in more depth than usual. It also (I hope) gives the model the chance to both be comfortable, and contribute to the work.