The important thing about drawing from a live model – or drawing from life in general – is to not concentrate on the Drawing part of “Observational Drawing”, but the Observing part. I’ve found that when most artists find themselves struggling with the human figure, it’s simply because they’re not looking at the figure as much as they are focusing on their “art.”

I think it takes patience (and maybe even a little humility) to just slow down, forget about the great work of art you want to create and just look – I mean really LOOK – at your subject. To try and understand every nuance, every planar change on the surface of their face, every thought and emotion that is being displayed through how they use their hands, how they are allowing their weight to be pulled down by gravity, the expression in their eyes – all the things that are far more difficult to capture on paper than just their physical form. Drawing doesn’t start with your pencil. It starts with your eyes. And your brain takes the information your eye provides and begins to devise a plan of how to capture what you see and put it down in pencil or ink or paint. That planning is the foundation of the drawing and cannot be rushed.

These are just some samples of my own work in Life Drawing. Although I’ve been drawing people for almost 40 years now, I’m still just beginning to learn how to really see the Subject – to think with my eyes – and make what I draw a true reflection of nature.

We had an animatic screening on Thursday- it’s all very exciting!  Everyone’s looked really promising, though some need tweaking.  I ended up showing mine, but it isn’t actually my film anymore since I watched it, didn’t like it and wrote another script.  Perhaps not the wisest choice but now is the time to change it.  I want to make a film I like, it’s hard to find you’re own ‘thing’ if you see what I mean, this film is going to be a representation of me, so I want to be happy with it.  I think my happiness is the most important thing, even if it is disillusion on my part…What am I talking about?  Here’s some life drawing!

Probably not work safe. I wouldn’t know.

Just some of my life drawing stuff

These are just a whole bunch of things I haven’t posted yet. I’m too lazy to put them up separately. 

I really enjoyed watching Brent Laycock’s demos at the workshop last month. There is a rhythm that some artists have that is almost dance. This realization has made me recognize my own tendency to “dance” while I paint or draw.

So now I’ve started to have my MP3 player with me at figure sessions, always playing an energetic song. It naturally speeds up my movements and my drawing becomes more intuitive and loose, and surprisingly, more accurate at the same time. This was done to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas – a 10 minute sketch with pencil crayon on craft paper:

Velazquez, Self portrait.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez, arguably the greatest Spanish painter of all time, was also Spain’s greatest figure painter. Born in Seville, Andalusia in 1599, he was educated as an artist in southern Spain until spent an important formative period Madrid from 1622-1629, where he studied under the visiting Peter Paul Rubens. In 1629 and 1649 he visited Italy, purchasing some of the great works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, as well as spending time at all the major Italian academies. Other than those visits to Italy, Velazquez spent his career in Madrid as a favorite of the royal court, particularly Philip IV. He only completed about 150 works of art, many of which were portraits of Spanish aristocracy, including 40 of Philip IV himself.

The Toilet of Venus, 1649.

Velazquez is a superb painter – one of my favorites – but he only has a single nude that survives today: The Toilet of Venus (or the Rokeby Venus). I first saw this piece in 2000 during a trip to the National Gallery, London, and was immediately an admirer of Velazquez. The Rokeby Venus – so named because of its ownership at Rokeby Park, England – was probably painted during Velazquez’s trip to Italy in 1649. The painting was completed in Italy in part because of the influence of the Italian artists and their love of the nude figure, but also because Spanish nudes during this time period were very hard to come by due to the Spanish Inquisition. Regardless, it is one of Velazquez’s finest figurative works, and certainly among his most famous. Though he likely used a live model for the painting, her identity is unknown; some have speculated she was a mistress he saw while in Rome, while others argue she was a model used in a number of his other paintings.

Archne (A Sybil), 1647. A fine clothed figurative work by Velazquez.

Regardless of her identity, she is now immortalized on canvas in one of the world’s top art museums, her lush figure enjoyed by thousands upon thousands of visitors every year. Though her face is somewhat obscured by the mirror, her form is unobscured and fully on display, one of the rare instances we see a model’s entire backside and face at the same time. I wonder what the model would say to feminist Mary Richardson, who attacked the painting in 1914 as part of the suffrage movement, tearing 7 holes in the canvas? Would she agree with the feminist loathing of the adoration of female beauty? Or would she argue that as the model she holds the power over all of us observers, Velazquez included? Is the joke on her, or on us? It’s ironic that Velazquez’s one nude, painted safely outside the reach of the Spanish Inquisition, would be shredded centuries later in England by a woman whose ideology couldn’t be more distinct from the extreme conservative Catholics.

Mars, 1640.

Though the Rokeby Venus is Velazquez’s lone nude, he complete several masterful figurative works, my favorite of which is Mars. Painted around 1640 in Madrid, Mars is an excellent execution of the male figure as well as a masterful use of color. Superficially simple, once you let your eyes feast on Mars for a time, the viewer is mesmerized by its subtle complexity. The face is – like the Rokeby Venus – somewhat obscured in shadow, but the rest of the figure is on full display, aside from a strategically placed silk sheet. The lighting and skin tones are superb, contrasting perfectly with the lush colors of the surrounding fabric. At the bottom of the canvas lies the armor of Mars, ostensibly stripped off during his tryst with Venus. The painting takes place after he is caught by the gods making love to her, explaining his somewhat contemplative posture.

Several years ago I did a month-long, two-day a week painting class with a pose specifically modeled after Mars. The instructor was a big Velazquez fan, and arranged the composition very similar to the actual painting. Instead of a helmet I wore a purple turban, and instead of a silk wrap I wore skimpy red shorts. Though I wasn’t completely nude, considering the context of the painting – just being caught in the middle of love-making – it was the most exposed I’ve felt while modeling. In my mind this highlights the dual function of an art model: to provide both physical and emotional inspiration for the artists. Indeed, the class was very talented and produced some great paintings from our sessions, including some of the most emotionally poignant I’ve seen.

Of course, Velazquez will always be remembered for his masterpiece, Las Meninas. I have seen the original in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, and it is one of those rare paintings that passes all expectations when viewing it in person. I stood entranced for about half an hour, just taking in the technical mastery combined with political and social commentary. Though not a true figurative piece, Las Meninas is truly sublime…

Las Meninas, 1656.

just to keep my drawings coming!

Thanks for coming to Drawn Again, a place for my drawings online.

I have been drawing – and really loving it – ever since I was around 4 years old – that’s 29 years ago – but until now I have shown them publicly just a few times.

The drawings you’ll find here are figurative and been made with charcoal, conté crayon, pen and ink and coloured pastel and work is divided into subject matter – nudes; nudes 2; flora and fauna; (mainly simple flower studies) drawn unaware (drawings of people who I saw on tubes, trains and buses who didn’t know I was drawing them) and portraits (of a variety of people – models and friends).

All the drawings on Drawn Again are for sale as original drawings or quality digital and giclée prints. Please go to the page ‘buy a drawing ‘ if you are interested in knowing more about prices and delivery details.

I hope you enjoy looking at them.

Lena Grove stole hearts left and right, and just like last time, I had a couple folks tell me later they’re either in love with her, or are still in love from the last time.  On a side but related note, because Windows can’t make an operating system that can’t run for 5 minutes without crashing, I’ve been working on this blog post for three days, and, well, there’s a lot worse things in the world I could have been looking at that than a photo blog of last session.  Alexis is in Phoenix at the moment doing whatever people do in Phoenix, grilling armadillos and whatnot, so it’s up to me write this post with little to no adult supervision.  This means, 1) there’ll be more typos than usual and 2) someone somewhere will probably be offended shortly.

Anyway, let’s get this going.

Lots of sketches got sent in this time around.  This first one is from Michelle Murphy…

Our first contest was the opposite hand contest, where “if you’re right-handed, you draw with your left, and if you’re left-handed you draw with your right, and if you’re ambidextrous pretend you’re not so you don’t make anyone cry.”  Russell made up some mystery shots for the two winners; he actually messed up the first set and made us drink the horrible concoction . . . don’t ever say Team Sketchy isn’t willing to take one for the team.  If you thought we were a little more tipsy than normal by the end of things, you were probably right.

Near as I can tell, no one sent any opposite-hand drawings in from that contest, unless they were cheating, which I doubt, since the crowd looked to be a good, wholesome sort.

That last photo MIGHT be the judging of the opposite-hand drawing contest.  Hard to tell though.

This next sketch is from Steve Peters, he and Andrea Grigoropol (you’ll see her stuff in a minute) drove all the way down from Philly just to see Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore.  I can not tell you how much that tickles us.  Unless they’re spies from the Philly Dr. Sketchy’s.  Advance scouts for some sort of Dr. Sketchy’s gang turf war if you will.  If that’s the case, if they’re making a move on our corner, well, we ain’t scared of Nicola Black’s posse.  Just in case though, if some of you could pack your heat for the next couple sessions, we should be alright.

That’s a joke.

It just occurred to me this IS Baltimore, somebody might take me seriously.

Michelle Murphy next . . .

Brian Dugan

And here’s Andrea Grigoropol from Philly . . .

The first contest was a special request from Lena – she wanted the best interpretation of her as a zombie, the winner getting 1000 Pinup Girls by Harald Hellmann, Charles Martignete, Louis Meisel from Atomic Books.

A whole bunch of folks gave her their drawings at the end of the night, which we were lucky enough to get a chance to scan.  Unfortunately, that means we don’t have the names of the artists.  If you see your sketch, email us, and we’ll be happy to tack your name under it.  On the off chance two people claim a drawing, the two can come to the next Dr. Sketchy’s (this Monday with Sugar Ann Spice!) and settle it with a rousing bout of fisticuffs during a break.

ANYWAY, these first two are from that stack.

(I had some trouble with the scanner on this one. . . that’s only half of it.   The scanner just ain’t big enough.)

(edit: This following drawing is by Diego Molano.)

Another Steve Peters . . .

Brian Dugan

The next contest was the random noun contest where folks in the crowd shout out a random . . . well, noun.  Obviously some drinks had started to make themselves known since we somehow ended up with “Mexican wrestling badgers”.  No, I don’t know either.  I don’t even know what a badger looks like.  I can’t even imagine trying to draw one with a Mexican wrestling mask on.  The crowd definitely had my sympathies, though they did bring it on themselves I suppose.  The prize was Miss Mindy’s Sassy Paper Doll Bonanza by Miss Mindy from Baby Tattoo Books.

This first one is Andrea Grigoropol again, at least I think it is.  It has AG on it and was in Lena’s stack.

Brian Dugan

Another unnamed . . .

A couple more sketches to finish us out . . .

Michelle Murphy

Andrea Grigoropol (next three)

Steve Peters

EM Kuker

And one more unnamed . . .

Special super-duper thanks go to Lena Grove of Baltimore’s Gilded Lily Burlesque who without none of this would be possible, to Russell of the Windup Space for putting one more nail in everyone’s livers, Jeff for talking all these nice pictures, Bill for taking video for the Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore documentary while simultaneously watching the door, and our generous sponsors Atomic Books, Artist & Craftsman Supply, and Baby Tattoo Books.

The next Dr. Sketchy’s is tomorrow, November 23rd, at 7:00 (doors at 6) at the Windup Space with Sugar Ann Spice!

If you haven’t already, check out the previous post to get a peek at Monday’s prizes!

]]> http://lesleypunton.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/meetings-meetings-and-more-meetings/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:53:31 +0000 lesleypunton http://lesleypunton.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/meetings-meetings-and-more-meetings/

Last week felt extremely fragmented, with another all day interview training staff development event (fun as it was in our group, and nice to catch up with some pgcert talk with Susan, do we really need to do this almost every year??). Also, I had a shortish 1st year meeting, and a meeting timetabled to last 1.5 hours which turned into a 6 hour session on thursday with FAP Year Tutors, and where I didn’t leave work until 10pm. I’m not quite sure how it happened that it went on so long considering there was nothing particularly problemmatic discussed, but I sincerely hope this isn’t how it’ll always be with the new boss! So, as a result, I don’t feel I’ve seen the students so much. They’ve been in workshops though, and are only now able to get stuck into the meat of their ideas.

My anxiety over whether I’d created too heavy a workload for the students has, I think, been resolved. I called a meeting for Wednesday, and discussed initially in general terms how they were getting along. The unavailability of certain types of film stock has delayed some of them, and they did seem to be getting a bit panicked about the looming end of term. I sensed they were potentially going to simply churn out work to meet a target number of films to be shot, and with the nature of this project (the part using large format explores notions of stillness and the stilled moment – Barnett perhaps!!!) this might be completely the wrong approach. So instead, I’ve relaxed the requirement to produce a specific number of films by the end of term without compromising (I think) my assertion that they do need to try to be more productive than they might have been pre art school in order to allow their work the best chance of developing. I think it shoud be ok. What was, to me, most striking about the exchange was the generosity the students shared when I acknowledged I might have “made a mistake” in setting the requirements so high. Their mutually supportive voice was genuine in their understanding of my intentions; perhaps they know I’m learning too, and chorused that it wasn’t a mistake!

At the FAP staff meeting, we discussed the results of the QEQ’s which were, on the whole, pretty good and positive. One area where there seemed to be a little lack of clarity was regarding assessment. It seems the 1st & 2nd year students think they understand how they’re being assessed, but 3rd and 4th year students don’t (or at least, are not so clear overall). I  was year tutor to the third years last year, so am wondering why this is the case. It’s hard to decide how to interpret the statistics (and whether to completely trust them as ideally I’d be able to look at what the same year group said when they were in the earlier years/know that the same people  filled out the questionnaire in both instances  etc), but if there is a shift of understanding (which seems strange to me since the assessment system is the same all the way through the course) could it be that the importance we place on indepedence, which becomes increasingly strong in Y3 &4, isn’t communicated cleary enough to the students? I talked about this all the time to them though, so that doesn’t quite seem right either. I wondered too whether there was a threshold concept embedded somewhere in this, that until students gained a greater autonomy, they somehow missed part of the point of the later years of the course and, despite it being voiced by staff many times, couldn’t fully comprehend the ramifications and manifestations of autonomy of practice in terms of assessment. Jim disagrees, and has since said he thinks there’s probably something lacking in the stated assessment criteria, but when I spoke to my colleagues at our 6 hour meeting about the idea of troublesome knowledge, most found the idea quite compelling. I’ve been discussing threshold concepts more with Jim, and together we’ve tried to refine some of the concepts I’d written in an earlier post (i’ll post the additions/refinments soon). However, I think we do, as a department, need to look at the learning outcomes and assessment criteria more closely, and speak more informally with the students for feedback.

A first last week was teaching life drawing to Photo students. I’ve been a student in a million life classes, but have never led one. It was really just a one off for them, a hang-over to the unavailability of the life room during the drawing project at the start of the term. I asked the students if they wanted me to reschedule it, and they said yes. I don’t imagine that many will return to the life room regularly, but it’s interesting to give them the opportunity to engage in an activity where they have to concentrate deeply, and look hard. It’s slipped away from the curriculum, and I don’t actually think a photography student needs to be able to draw per se (although I’m genuine in my belief in the benefits of an expansive notion of drawing), but I remember very clearly my first life classes as being almost symbolic of being “at art school”. I spoke to them about the etiquette of the life room beforehand, and about the respect one needs to give the model who is in a uniquely vulnerable position, but how life drawing is perhaps the only place where we can objectively, in a non-sexualised way, engage in looking at the dignified body of another naked human being in our contemporary society and how important it was to respect and value this. (I don’t remember this having ever being acknowledged once way back in 1986 when I was a 1st year student, a time where, I might add, all the female models were nude, but the male ones wore underpants!). I think this respect for the subject is something they should consider in their photographic work, but it is at it’s most palpable in the life room.

After the class, one of the students found the comparison of life drawing interesting in relation to using the 5×4 large format camera in that there was a kind of analagous relationship to the notion of the stilled moment. We worked initially on 1 minute warm up poses, then some exercises designed to loosen up (blind drawing, left handed drawing, continuous line drawing, drawing using only tone and no line) then moved on to some longer poses of 20 – 25 minutes. They made some good work, though I think the ones I liked best weren’t the ones that they valued most as they weren’t the most “accurate”. It’s difficult for students to accept authorship for something that they didn’t intend, and until they can accept authorship, it’s hard for them to be proud of something they don’t think they themselves achived.

Jeff, the model, was brilliant and was easy to “pose” (he needed almost no direction). Taking up Marianne & Hanneline’s advice of trying to build up a relationship/dialogue with the model before the class began and view the teaching of the session as a collaboration between me and Jeff, I think it worked very well. The second group have their life class on Thursday, and happily, I’m working with Jeff again.

Some more figure sketching

Drawings from conference in Colchester:

Here is an update on my Life Drawing. Normally i like to work with just my pencil but this week i managed to squeeze some yellow and pink in. But the colours are screwed thanks to photoshop, well it was either correct colours and faint lines, or clear lines and ugly colours. Also this time i have made it so when you click on the image, it links you to a larger image. I think i shall be doing this from now on.

Good old Morris for the… 3rd time? Yeah.. this time i managed to make him look like Mermaid Man from SpongeBob SquarePants. oops. Either way these image came out pretty well i feel.

Sorry for the quality on this image, it would seem that the page is rather dirty. Some blind drawings none the less.

Perspective Perspective…

.. and some more. Pink turned red, but still looks okay.

Hand studies, this was towards the end where my patients with drawing the whole figure was… fading.