IN THE BEGINNING....

 My goal this year is to work with the figure.  Tuesday nights there is a live model session at the bargain price of $5 for the evening!!  I decided to drag myself out of the house and go every Tuesday night I am at home.  Last night was the first evening I have been home this month.  These sessions start with several 2 minute poses, progressing to 5 minute poses, then 10 and finally several 20 minute poses.

I found this exciting new book "Expressive Figure Drawing" by Bill Buchman.  He has a different approach to drawing the figure.  I brought the book along and tried to follow the progressive exercises he suggests.  The first was actually the most difficult for me.  Using the edge of a conte crayon, draw the mass geometric shapes.  I don't think geometrically, so I don't think I got the essence of the assignment. The next one was to use the side of the conte crayon and draw the main masses.  This was easier.

Once the poses became longer, I was able to do several drawings of the same pose.  Here I was trying to see the shadows.  This model was very thin with tatoos all over one shoulder (and various other places).  The tatoo made it difficult to see the shape and contour of her shoulder.  Very annoying.  I think I exaggerated the extension of her body, especially the horizontal pose.  I was not taking any measurements but just drawing fluidly what I saw.  I was not interested in making it photo perfect.  I was more interested in capturing the gesture and the weight distribution.

This exercise was different from any I had done before and I really like the results.  You use the side of the crayon and draw the contour of the NEGATIVE SPACE beside the right side of the figure.  Then you show the connecting inner contour lines next to the negative space.  You are supposed to do this several times across the page.  Naturally, I had to try the idea on the left side of the figure, too.  She decided to add a ratty stole for this pose which obscured much of the right side.  Improvise!

 Here I was trying to simplify and be selective.  An interesting challenge.  She actually had a lovely nose.  Ink is unforgiving so she looks a little like Pinocchio.  I am using a chop stick which has been shaved down to a point on one end and thin flat wedge on the other.  It has become one of my favorite tools or drawing with ink.

This pose never looked right to me but I gave it a good try.

 Fast gesture with ink.

 Trying for minimal here.

My favorite drawing of the evening.

Next week I will be in Portland.