Tuesday life drawing

 
Shortish poses at this session.

Tuesday life drawing

A new year of life drawing

Had a day of life drawing on Saturday and our Tuesday evening sessions started up again this week so drawing for 2018 is off to a good start. A friend has decided to set me a weekly drawing challenge too so news of that coming soon.

Tuesday life drawing

Saturday life drawing

 We had our monthly life drawing day at the art gallery yesterday. No painting for me this time; spent the whole day drawing. The drawing I made from the long pose was pretty much complete which is very unusual for me - and the figure has a head! It was such a great pose - loads of foreshortening.

This may be one of the most successful life drawings I've made. Pity the cat lay on it when I got it home and carried off a lot of the charcoal on her coat! Ah well...

 

Here's the drawing before and after it had been 'improved' by the cat.

Tuesday life drawing

 Didn't have time to prep etching plates for this week's session so it was literally back to the drawing board. Drawing smaller this week, charcoal in an A2 sketch pad. Not too happy with these. Hopefully back to the etching plates next week.

Portrait commission

It's been a really creative start to the year. As well the life drawing based etchings, and making three submissions for Small Faces (delivered to the gallery yesterday), I also completed this portrait commission. This is a drawing of the client's mother in charcoal, also delivered yesterday. And it's only 21 January! I'm hoping the year will continue as it has started.

Week 12

3 x 5 minute drawings

It was our last life drawing session of the term this week. I was hoping to sign up for next term but very sadly, the gallery is havng to move premises at very short notice so no more sessions until they find a new venue. Gutted. Going to have to have a swift rethink over the Christmas period as I don't want to lose the momentum I've built up over the last four months. And I've only just begun my painting adventure!

3 x 2 minute sketches

20 minutes

30 minute oil sketch

Life drawing weeks 10 and 11

Quick oil sketch - 45 minutes

I don't have an awful lot to show for the last couple of weeks at life drawing as I have begun to paint in the sessions, and as I'm completely new to this, the results are somewhat ropey.

This first image is from the long pose at the end of the session, about 45 minutes, and is nothing more than a rough sketch in oils. The week before I had longer, over an hour, but what I produced was terrible so I wiped it all off and reused the board this week. It's going to take me a long time to master this I think but I'm really enjoying the process so far, even though the end product is no good.

I have been making drawings during the short poses to get my eye in and because there isn't really time to paint then.

Another grumpy self-portrait

I made another A1 sized self-portrait last week, again thinking about Auerbach's techniques. This time I put a tone all over the paper with charcoal before I started the drawing and used a putty rubber to pull the subject out of the background. Well, to pull the highlights out of the background. I think it's fairly successful though of course, there are elements that don't work - like my left eye. More practice needed.

Self-portraits as historical records

Charcoal on paper, A1, November 2015

Inspired by Frank Auerbach's portraits, and feeling the need to practice more with charcoal, working big (how ridiculous that I've only discovered the wonderousness of charcoal at this late stage!), I made the above self-portrait this weekend.

Self-portraits are good exercise when you don't have another model around; and made periodically over the years, they provide a useful record of the progress of one's work and skills as well as a history of ageing / personal change. I'm rather ashamed of the drawings from 2009 - didn't think I drew that badly. I can't remember... maybe they were intended as rough sketches... Nasty. The regular life drawing is definitely helping my observation and drawing skills.
 

Graphite on paper, A3, May 2011

 

Graphite on paper, A4, August 2009

Graphite on paper, A4, September 2009

Maggi Hambling's drawings

I've been looking at a lot of paintings and drawings over the last few weeks (working my way through the art books at the library) and came across these lovely charcoal drawings of Henrietta Moraes by Maggi Hambling. Moraes died at the age of 67; the drawings were made during the last nine months of her life and just after she died. 

Hambling and Moraes (an alcoholic) were partners and their short relationship weathered Moraes's rapid decline including spells in a psychiatric hospital. It must have been an intense, tempestuous time; the drawings Hambling made of Moraes after death - from her dead form and later from memory - suggest a strength of the emotion and longing.

There's a great sensitivity in the drawings and a vibrancy that denies the fact that moraes was dying. I find them really quite moving.

Hambling M (2001) Maggi & Henrietta: drawings of Henrietta Moraes by Maggi Hambling, London: Bloomsbury

More life drawing - week 3

3 x 5 minute poses

Yes, it's all I'm doing creatively at the moment. I'm really enjoying it though, more than I've ever enjoyed life drawing before. I love working so big and loosely with charcoal. Was never able to get on with it at college but I just love it now. Need to get some fixative before the drawings vanish though.
 

15 minutes

Some good exercises in foreshortening today. Quite pleased with the arms and hands in the 15 minute drawing above.
 

1 hour

Getting to grips with creating tone with the charcoal; some nice tonal areas on the longer pose. Proportion issues though - that foot is way too big. I've discovered that my drawings get bigger as I work further down the page... Could this be because I'm tall and the lower sections of the paper are therefore further away? I extend the easel as high as I can but they never seem to be quite tall enough...

Looking back over my drawings from the last three weeks, I think I am improving. Lots more work to do of course; there always will be, but I think I'm heading in the right direction.