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.

This week I decided that I would like to build upon the previous week's session but this time use coloured pastel instead of charcoal. As a student, I had had some success in using pastel on coloured paper, I liked the way that the coloured ground could help with the midtones in a drawing.
Because I was using colour, I wanted to carefully consider the model's skin tone, not just the areas of light and dark, to inform the drawing. This was soooo difficult!! It was so long since I had analysed a surface for its 'composite' colour - I struggled to see it. I was worried in case I'd lost that ability. I left the session with a headache and a couple of drawings that I wasn't particularly proud of BUT I had been reminded of the difference between looking and seeing. I felt that I had to relearn how to see the subtle diferences in shade and tone of the skin's surface before I could make this technique work the way I wanted it to.

Week 2 and the challenge this week was to draw into / out of charcoal using a putty rubber. The simple process of freely applying the ground of charcoal to the paper encouraged a looseness and freedom in the mark making. This was a very physical exercise. It was impossible not to use the arm instead of the wrist to produce the first drawing done in 3 minutes (in all these posts the drawing closest to the text is the first drawing of the session). The second drawing (done in about 30 minutes) demonstrates the emphasis upon tone, light & shade, rather than line - a wonderful exercise which steadily leads to solidity in the form. We were given about 45 minutes for the final drawing of the evening - I was quite pleased with this, not least because I had made some attempt to draw the face! Although there are some problems with proportion, I feel that in this drawing I managed to capture the weight and mass of the model as she sat in the chair.

After a tea break and a few more quick sketches, I felt that my brain was beginning to get back into gear. This final drawing of the evening is more fluid and the marks less tentative. The 2 hours had flown by and I had thoroughly enjoyed the session. I had forgotten how much focus is required for life drawing. As you look at the model and consider how and where to put down the marks, lines & textures, there is no place for any other thought. The process is entirely absorbing, almost meditative. I was completely hooked and looking forward to the following week.

I found a great class about 6 miles from my home. I was quite nervous, fiddling with the pencils, breaking the charcoal! There were 6 people in the group and the class was very well structured, we started with a few quick drawings - this first drawing was done in less than a minute. The quick fire sketches are a wonderful way to re-train the eye. I had definitely forgotten how to 'look '.
The second drawing was done in about 20 minutes - quite rigid and rather stiff I wasn't pleased with this at all.