Marathon

So on Sunday I went for the full 9 yards.  9 hours of life drawing, with about 2 hours break in there for food.  The morning was a variety of poses, the afternoon was 3 hours of the same pose with two different models and the evening was another variety of poses.

I can see myself progressing somewhat, which is always encouraging.  I had seen someone in the class last week doing shadow studies with a grey brush pen, so I got one and tried it out.  It turned out to be a fabulous way to study form, as I really have to hone in on where the forms curve and change planes to get accurate shadows with only one tone.  I soon graduated from this to 3, or even 4, tones.  darks, mid-tones and white for highlights.  I am particularly happy with these.

Also, my gestures, working with a china marker and glossy newsprint, and focusing on flow of force and form, is taking more shape, as can be seen in some of the drawings.  It is so hard to capture form and energy at once, with as few lines as possible.  Each line must speak, must communicate, clearly and cleanly.  You can see where I second guess, as my line hesitates, it stutters or stammers.

I feel like I am just learning to spell. I have backwards R's and K's, my grammar is atrocious, but I can at least form coherent sentences that communicate.  Simplifying line is probably the hardest part.  It is easy to communicate with lots of words, but real poetry comes in the finesse of simplicity, each word or line charged with meaning.

So here are the pictures which resulted from this marathon.  By the last hour I was mentally and physically exhausted.