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I returned to life drawing last night but it was a struggle. My main focus was trying not to pass out in the 100 degree heat. It felt like in my two weeks away I forgot how to draw altogether and I also had the added frustration of trying out a new type of paper. For the last pose of the night the model surrendered to the exhaustion of the heat, taking a pose I totally related to, and I took out my last piece of newsprint. It was when these things came together that I finally drew an image I was happy with. For this reason there will continue to be a drought of drawings until I can get back there next week with new paper and a bottle of ice water and try again.
This is a ten minute sketch from about two months ago. I kept reworking the face because it looked like she was looking down while the model looked like she was looking up. I just came off of 5 very intense days of work at the rehab hospital, at the end of which was the Wednesday evening life drawing session I was determined to make it to, it's what I look forward to most each week. I took a quick shower but when I found myself still sitting in my robe on the couch staring into space at the same time drawing begins, I knew I had to surrender to the exhaustion.
I don't like to interrupt the rhythm of projects on my blog but I am so overbooked these days that I won't be able to get back to drawing until the end of next week. It brought this image to mind, a weary looking model propped on a cane, and how I had to rework the face to get her to look up instead of down. I like how her right foot looks like its solidly planted on the ground as if it's not giving up despite the weariness.
I like to listen to the sounds of charcoal on paper as we move progressively from a one to a twenty minute pose. Short poses bring quick, scratchy sounds, as if the charcoal is racing with the panic and excitement that comes when there is not enough time. Long poses bring slower sounds, you can almost hear the charcoal groan over the thinking of its artist. With more time there is more time to worry about getting it right.
To my new followers here at Daily Art Works, thank you and welcome to my quiet corner of the internet, I'm really glad you stopped by. It was three years ago this month that I started out on an amazing Road Trip (the story starts at the bottom of the link). I jumped through a window of opportunity in order to spend some time attending to things I've always wanted to do, such as painting in Philadelphia or writing on the coast of Maine. And to take time to visit people I've loved throughout my life along the way. It took four months to live and a year and a half to write about it.
When I started out I thought it would be more like a bucket list, putting some things to rest before I started my new professional life. I didn't know at the time that I was really planting seeds and dreaming my way into being all that I wanted to be.
Ah, Memorial Day, A day of remembering and rest (except that I've been working all weekend, including today). I don't get the rest right now but I can still have the memories and one of my favorite ones is the Memorial Day I spent three years ago with my favorite Indy 500 fans at the beginning of the road trip of a life time. I also remember my old cell phone, the unexpected painter who came along and told the tale in the most poetic way.
When I took the painting workshop at Studio Incamminati three years ago, one of the instructors told us if we kept practicing, just kept going through that awful muddy phase, we would start to get glimpses, little areas of our paintings where something starts to come alive. And we wouldn't even know what it is was we did. Then, as we noticed the glimpses more and more, we would also start noticing what it is we did that made them happen, and then we could do it again and before we knew it we would really be painting.
The model looked like she was gazing at the clouds when she took this pose. I couldn't quite capture the look of ease the model had, but I was thrilled that I went for it all because it turned out to be very difficult to draw a face from this angle. I like how her hand turned out too.
