weekly figure group

anne marie
Strathmore drawing 16" x 11", charcoal. 10 minutes.

another installment in the weekly figure drawing group. the model this week was anne marie, a charming and hardworking young woman with an unusual method of finding poses. i may ask her to model for me.

this drawing was difficult to do ... a 10 minute pose that was also full of event, including both hands and a foot. it probably didn't help that i was fully stoned, but detours are sometimes vacations.

my interest was to capture the torque and flow of the figure, again working in outline and without erasing preliminary marks.

ann marie is a model that throws a fine line between lively and erotic, which is relieved by the fact that we cannot see her face. i often omit the hands, feet or head, or draw the face in schematic (lips and nose only, or sketchy features) if the drawing is getting a little too "hot".

anne marie
Strathmore drawing 14" x 10", charcoal. 20 minutes.

this is a portrait study, though it doesn't look much like her. i drew standing against a wall, resting the pad on a stack of easels, looking over my shoulder. a bit plein air, that.

i'm usually positioned 12 feet or so from the model, as i like to stand as a i work, and don't see features clearly at that distance. what i did here was use her pose as a reference for proportion and shape, and more or less inserted generic features in place.

i think this is what always happens in drawing, especially short drawings with unfamiliar models. our understanding of the world is fretted and bordered in and out with schemas and stereotypes, where plain looking isn't up to the complexity or depth of the world. isn't life a fucking adventure?

the group has about 8 or 10 regular (weekly) attendees, two or three of them better artists than me, and the decorum is generally good for work. i use the breaks to go outside and breathe rather than socialize.

a recent model who read through this blog said to me, "i read your comments and you are so hard on yourself!" i had to laugh, because an artist in st. louis made the same observation. ok, i'm hard on myself.