Figure drawing at Leith

Friday, November 16th, at Leith School of Art was a day of life drawing. The model, Michael, did a few two minute poses to get us warmed up, then a long drawing on A2 shiny paper.

Moving Figures

Sunday, November 25, was a day of drawing moving figures with Greer Ralston.


The brief.

Greer started by getting the model, Clare, to skate around the room, stopping briefly for a few second for us to draw her.
She then did a half hour pose, dressed, sitting on a chair, which was followed by more quick poses of her wandering around the room, nude, with her dressing gown.
More life drawing, five minutes them one minute, followed by her moving. One more half hour pose and then back to skating round the room.
The last pose, with roller skates, we had one minute and then we had to move to the easel on our right and had one minute to draw on the other person's drawing. This went on for ten minutes, continually moving to the easel on the right, until every drawing was a combination of the ten of us.

By the end of the day I had 18 pages of lining paper, aprox. A1 size with multiple drawings in pastel, ink, and charcoal.

The first few sketches of Clare as she skated around the room. Sometimes she would stop for less than a minute and sometimes she was stationary for as long as a minute.

I started by covering the paper roughly with charcoal so as to get rid of the whiteness.

The most important thing I found was to get the energy of her movements and as it was impossible to get enough information down, to to for the obvious indications like the helmet, angle of legs ( shown by the knee pads) and the straps on her tee shirt.
She was wearing purple tights, black shorts, black tee shirt, blue and black striped socks and the skates' wheels were acid green with a pink strip down the sides.  I did not have time to get all the colours in but intend to do a painting based on these drawings.

There were so many drawings that there was not time to change paper and so I drew on the same page. This added to the sense of movement and energy.

This was twenty minute pose to give us time to settle back into drawing more slowly.















These life drawings were done as Claire moved across the room. Again, no time to change paper or get any detail. One minute or less was just enough time to give some indication of where the centre of balance was and no more.
I tried to prepare the paper with mid tone pastel ( sketches on right) but did not have time before Claire was moving across the room.

Most of the sketches were done with charcoal except the lower one which was done with a brush and ink over paper prepared with charcoal.

Clare then brought her dressing gown and did a few two minute poses in between walking round the room.  Sketch on the right was nearly five minutes.



































The lower pose was twenty minutes and I struggled to get the composition to work as well as the anatomy. The sketch on the right was also longer and very difficult to get the angle she was while leaning on the upturned table. After doing so much drawing at speed it was quite hard to change gear mentally.
This was Greer's intention and to change the length of all poses in order to challenge the ability to change gear.

Clare was back in her skating gear and rushing around the room and the last drawing was of her taking off her skates.

The last drawing was a combined effort by all the class. After one minute we had to go to the easel on the right and draw on the other person's drawing. After doing this ten times, each drawing had been drawn by all of us.














The experience was amazing as I found myself having to think so fast in order to get as much down as possible to indicate the movement. There was no time to think, get paper on the drawing board or decide about what medium. Just grab what came to hand and go for it!

Museum of Childhood

This was a day spent in the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh with the Leith School of Art.
The brief was, to sketch as much as possible with a view to spending the next two Fridays working on a painting ( or two ) depicting the atmosphere of the museum rather than focusing on the objects themselves.

This was a surprisingly difficult day, starting with complete overwhelm at the sheer amount of wonderful images. Everything was stimulating, visually wonderful and far too many ideas were coming into my head. First was to go round and look at everything, see what appealed most and do many sketches. The afternoon was spent in focusing more on what was going to be in the painting the following week.

I chose the carousel horse with it's many reflections as it summed up the idea of reality and unreality. The mirrors also gave the feeling of the horse moving in a circle. It was really difficult to keep it simple as the reflections got more and more interesting and my mind got more and more involved.

The other idea was the collections of dolls which were very erie, reminding me of horror films. As they were displayed in a pyramid, looking one way on the left and then to the right, they seemed to be like an army, stationary but about to move and attack any minute.
Their faces were grotesque and so I left them blank with the idea of the imagination being more powerful sometimes than reality.

Photographs were allowed and so I made use of the opportunity.

First very quick sketch of dolls. Biro on a background of pink oil pastel.










Second sketch of dolls focusing on the shapes between them, angle of the hats to show the direction they were facing. Pencil on A4.
















The object I was most fascinated with. A carousel horse reminding me of the days I wanted to run away and join the fairground. Also, a safe way of riding without fear of falling!
The reflections were awesome.

Sketch showing the distortion of the angles of the poles. Slightly distorted add to the mystery. Also the spiral was in reverse in the reflection.

Detail of the most complex reflections and angles of the horse.

This proved to be the most difficult as there was so much distortion and shapes that I could not make out.




















Detail of poles and horse.

















Indication of colour. Not very successful as the oil pastels were difficult to use and the floor was immensely complex because of the lighting which was overhead.

View of the horse on collaged paper, A4, drawn with pencil and oil pastel.

Detail of piano...
The reflections in the piano were fascinating because the doll was very dominant, with the bicycle behind her, which was reflected from the opposite showcase. The inside of the piano was filled with
small instruments and the front made of stained glass.
Possible for another painting?

This was a grotesque statue of two boys by the stairs. Horrific faces but the image was very nostalgic. The sign could come into something?














The Next Brief

The task was to take A1 cartridge paper, cover it with emulsion and start the painting with thin coats of acrylic paint but NO white, using big brushes.

The brief was to use collage and thin acrylic paint, not to have an idea of what the finished work would look like and to explore the feelings and memories of the museum of childhood.

I had real problems right from the start. First I put the collage on, lots of newspaper, coloured sugar paper and some news headlines. e.g.. "Prepare to be disorientated" which I thought was apt!
First problem was that thin paint did not work over collage. The paper became very dark and no colour appeared. I then started to peel off the paper and start again. Disaster.. bits of paper, torn and flaky. A mess!
I found that my original intention of carousel horses and reflections was not working. My mind seemed to be split in several parts and I had no idea what I was doing. How to do  painting without knowing what I was doing seemed impossible. The tutors were so patient but the more they tried to explain the concept, the more confused I got. Jane said do thumbnails of the composition, Jemma said, let the surface dictate what happened next.
Some of the other students knew exactly what they were doing and went straight for the composition and got on with it.
Some were sticking photos and drawings on the paper. Some had collage but had a plan to begin with.

By the end of the day, I had two unsuccessful pieces of paper, covered with thin paint, remains of collage and no idea of where to go next.
My original sense of the reflections of carousel horses and movement seemed too far from what I was trying to do.
What I realised, after hours of thought, was that the feeling of being overwhelmed in the museum was still there in the studio and that I had no idea what I was doing right from the start. Everything I saw in the museum I saw in terms of paint and the usual way I would tackle it. Having limitations on the materials meant having to think completely differently.

Perhaps I need to go back to the museum and start with a better handle on the concept to begin with?

Leith School of Art motto " PERSEVERE"

Expressive Mark making in Observation with Eleanor White

Quote....

Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've been. If process drives outcome, we may not know where we are going, but we will know we want to be there.  Bruce Mau, The drawing book.

Charcoal, ink  and pencil on A1 paper

Graphite, charcoal and rubber on A1 paper

Acrylic and applied marks with bubble wrap and lace, on A5 paper

Marks with lace, bubble wrap, card and scraping on A5

Painted over A5 paper of marks

Scratched from A5 paper with marks

Scratching, pastel and charcoal over marks on A5 paper.

Figures drawing revisited

Today was another attempt at figure drawing. My friend, Maurie, came to do some sketching and she was happy for me to draw her but she was painting and constantly moving.
The folds in her top were changing all the time as were her legs and feet.


The first was a drawing with intense pencils on A3 using one colour then a wash on top. Because her drawing board hid most of her legs, I found it more difficult to get her legs in proportion.


The second sketch was on grey pastel paper, between A4 and A3, intense pencils, marker pens and white chalk. I was trying to loosen up and concentrate on tone but in the process, lost the proportions. As her hands were moving constantly, I found it tricky to get any detail.

This sketch on the left was started with intense pencil, wash and then sepia ink wash. I then drew into it with a quill (feather) with sepia ink. I had very little control over the marks as it was either thick and blobby or running out of ink.











The next drawing was done in charcoal on A2 paper.

In spite of finding charcoal easier to handle, I found that going  to a larger size paper was more difficult to get anything in proportion and the tones got messier and less defined.

I then had another try at redrawing Paul using intense pencils and wash. I was trying to get the darker tones and drama of the composition to work.

On the whole I am happy with some aspects of getting the figure more or less lively and looking as though they are sitting  not suspended in the air.
I am not happy with the solidity and use of the different media. The composition is boring and needs to be worked out and redesigned. They are all very rough and I think I have problems in getting a finished drawing put together.