Figure in movement

Movement and strength - figure study - very big - maybe 90 x 50cms - and charcoal on very heavy grammage of paper.... 2007?

a bientot 

Jane

Fresh and Wild

Just drawing .. artist and model with reflection and flowers.. charcoal, painted ground, coloured chalk. Very big.  Very Quick. 2007.

a bientot
Jane

Mise en Page

I must say quite like this one .. which I fished out while weeding the unruly garden of my old life drawings.. so thought to blog it.. but I cannot remember who it is or when I did it or where... never mind.

a bientot

Jane

Strong guy..

A shy model, clearly, but no matter.. what he obviously made us think about was mass and muscle... and given rather a short pose, ten minutes (?) I nevertheless got interested in the complexities of those huge hands and their shadows..  a big drawing, at least A2, done in chalk pastel in 2005 in Nicosia.

a bientot 
Jane

Memento mori?

A diversion into a drawing from my Academy days in Brussels in which I recognise two hallmarks of that particular studio .. one is our Prof's sadistic liking for setting subjects in or in front of filthy pieces of plastic sheeting - (here delicately interpreted, I must say) and the other is the note of dissonance provided by the skeleton.. just in case we were tempted to turn it into something too pretty..  (model with skeleton, 1998, A2 charcoal pencil on paper)

a bientot

Jane

Speed dating ..

A rare chance to do very short poses with two models - double trouble to capture visual information .. don't think .. just draw ..

a bientot 
Jane

Petra 2

The same nicely curvy model as yesterday's posting,  with Alberto seen at work reflected in the mirror behind her... all that space to fill and I still chopped her foot off... (Chalk pastel on blue paper, A2, 2008)

a bientot 
Jane

Petra

A chalk drawing made of a pleasingly ample model with reflections in the mirror behind her showing me or one of my colleagues at work... most of my work was on the artist and model theme at the time.
( Chalk pastel on coloured paper, A2, 2008)

a bientot
Jane

Spring sketches no 8

Sometimes with short poses we choose what to notate and what to leave out ...

... and sometimes we try to include everything including the kitchen sink when there really isn't time.. (two short poses, chalk on sugar paper, A3,  2009)


a bientot
Jane

Spring Sketches no 7

Pink lady .. a variety of apple.. and a minute with the model..

a bientot
Jane

Spring Sketches no 7

These two short poses (A3 charcoal pencil on sugar paper 2009) were probably made in the same series and are certainly with the same model - a very characterful one, whose likeness was one of the easiest to capture. Although likeness is not the object of the exercise, (which is to observe the whole figure), it is always nice when it happens.

a bientot
Jane

Spring sketches no 6

A blue one. One of my favourite supports for very short poses is the sugar paper you buy in colourful blocks from toy shops for children's drawings. It has a nice rough resistance and "hooks" chalk and pastels particularly well. However it is much too absorbent for ink. Here are a few chalky white lines on a blue background. The model has a rather masculine look to her shoulders and seems solid without having a womanly voluptuousness... but I cannot really remember the session .. by the time you have spent about 700 hours in the life room you can't remember everything,  though it is surprising how much is retained.

a bientot
Jane

Spring Sketches No 4

A couple of scribbly ones.. not so much taking a line for a walk but more like taking it on a pub crawl and getting it drunk.. but I was on the orange juice myself..  advice: don't drink and draw!

à bientôt
Jane

Spring Sketches No 3. Ink/line/endomorph

These were all from the same series of short poses - draw, turn the page, draw, turn the page .. and above all ...... LOOK! My prof in Brussels said if you have 30 seconds look for 29 and then draw. They are never perfect so it is a good thing you can move swiftly on to the next one.. but don't suffocate the line.. the line must breathe .. that's a tough one..

Ha ha .. a cheeky felt nude is peeping out from the bottom corner.. a stowaway on the Good Ship Blogspot!

à bientôt
Jane

Splashing about

My friend Sara doesn't know that her friends are putting a project together for her 50th birthday. I have been messing around with felt today making my contributions.. it is a lot of fun..

à bientôt

Jane

Spring Sketches No 2. Ink/line/endomorph

A5 size sketchbook. Calligraphy pen and a minute with the model. A satisfyingly ample one to wrap the line around. The challenge is always to create three dimensionality without recourse to shading. Especially when she is leaning over and away from my point of view. Another one tomorrow.

à bientôt
Jane

Spring Sketches Series No 1

I made this sketch a while ago ... (couple, ink and wash, A5 , 2005) My friend Sheri sent me a beautiful drawing recently and the subject reminded me so much of this one of my own.... then I thought of blogging some of these sketches while I am on the point of getting a studio and getting back down to work again. It will help get me in the mood after too long a break.

This is an "après Rodin" moment of love. If you want to see Sheri's drawing and her wide range of lovely works made with everything from paintbrush to knitting needle visit Everyday Louise by Sheri La...

a bientot

Jane

Little acorns

Trying to get started again .. here's a small nude fashioned in a new medium for me. I have always been a needlewoman and have long been wondering how to build a technique around that and this is a new line of experimentation. I love Tracey Emin's blankets but I didn't want to imitate them .. maybe I can find a way to do something different with this roving wool and a needle combined with other elements. Words, in particular. And needlepoint with soluble canvas, perhaps.. here we go..

I am frustrated with having no studio but this can be done at home without poisoning the family...

a bientot

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

This year's resolution is to open my studio again and get back down to work.. watch this space.

This year's stocking went to my brother, who is younger than me, but old enough to have seen the first episode of Doctor Who with those utterly terrifying Daleks. This is one of those original Daleks who now, retired from a long career of frightening children (and quite a few parents) is enjoying a harmless game in the snow and using those guns to shoot nothing more lethal than a couple of snowballs.

His teddy bear is on there too - and his daughter Hannah's guinea pig.. and on the inside? Rather a lot of wine gums.

a bientot