redbrick mill 2

Up to date now. These were done last week (10th Jan 09), I stayed the whole day - the first 3 drawings were done in the morning session and the other 2 in the afternoon (just a reminder that the image closest to the text is always the first drawing of the session).

redbrick mill 1

These drawings were done about 6 months after the last one. J's Tuesday night class didn't run in September and I couldn't make it on the other night she had available. I was soooo disappointed then lo & behold, a different opportunity presented itself!
3 Batley based artists started monthly sessions at Redbrick Mill - Tom Wood, Tony Noble & Tony Chisholm. These sessions are not delivered in the same way as J's. Essentially a model and the space is provided for attendees to set up and draw as they please. What is good about these sessions is that they are held on a Saturday and run in two 3 hour sessions. This means that you can stay AAALLLL day to draw!! A dream come true!
I was a little rusty here. The second drawing of the head / face is testament to that (sorry G). I stayed for the morning and once I'd finished the final drawing, I was happy with the outcome and I included the face!

End of term and the last class.

In true end of term fashion, we were allowed to decide ourselves how to use the session. I decided to go back to the pastels to see how far my eye had come in the last 8 weeks. I was quite pleased with the outcome and particularly liked the colour. I would have liked to have completed more of the background - a challenge for next term perhaps.
I think there is greater confidence in the mark making here compared with the earlier weeks. It would be interesting to hear your views.

And this week it's monoprint and some new challenges.

The first drawing was made using only 9 lines and in the second drawing we were not allowed to take our pencil off the paper. Both done in seconds rather than minutes! The final two drawing in this post show the drawing and the resulting monoprint.

Biro's and felt tip pens this week.

It's great to work with biro, the marks can't be rubbed out so you're forced to carefully consider where you are putting them down. I tried this week to make an effort to tackle the face of the model...well at least in the quick sketches!

And now for something completely different! This week was real fun, twigs and ink and a new model. Another benefit to J's classes, the range of models she has - both male & female.
I loved this session. Some of the drawings are a little heavy handed but the results are more painterly which I like. I get a sense of progress here and a very definite shift in the fluidity and spontaneity of the mark making.

It's beginning to come together here, I feel that this is definitely a step closer to where I wanted to be with these early forays into pastel on coloured paper. I quite like the sagey green colour of the paper and the way that the oranges, browns and ochres work with it.
This week, our tutor had us work through a view finder. I hadn't done this since foundation course! It was really useful and helped me to construct a decent composition for the final drawing (about 50 minutes). This is what I like about this class, J. introduces techniques and approaches that have not been used for a while or, as the case maybe, never been used before. The nice thing about this is that we are less likely to just revisit our tried, tested and preferred techniques. I enjoyed the weekly challenge.