Life Drawing Day

Culmination of a delightful day...

A whole day earmarked for art during a busy, family orientated summer - sheer bliss! I attended the untutored life drawing day at Castle Acre. The event was held in a lovely village hall, tucked along a narrow country lane, with plenty of windows letting in lots of natural light (and offered lovely view of the ruined castle). The night before I was merrily trying to pack my art materials into a bag, and struggling as I seemed to have everything out of the cupboard! I had to tell myself out loud, "This is ridiculous, keep it simple..." and decided on taking charcoal, one box of pastel sticks and watercolours, along with a suitable selection of papers, drawing board and metal folding easel. I haven't painted with this group before, or in this venue, so also took water pot, kitchen towels and even plastic rubbish bags. We had been asked to bring along some food to contribute to a shared lunch so armed with a quiche, cherry tomatoes and grapes I was ready.

Evie, the model, was a delightful young woman - a dancer who now teaches and models in her free time. She was lithe and flexible and could make lovely shapes with her arms and legs. Over the course of the day she posed wearing a leotard, a fluid jersey dress and a marvellous black tutu.

Short poses to start...
3 minutes using charcoal on cartridge paper.

Interesting shaping in the leg position... charcoal.

Warming up, tackling 3-5minute poses.
(Charcoal on left, sepia pen on right).

More complex limb positions...
(brown pastel stick on left, charcoal on right).

Charcoal and pastel on tinted pastel paper...
actually two poses superimposed, can just see initial
one when Evie was other side of frame, facing me.

Charcoal to create initial mid-tone over paper,
then eraser to lift lights and charcoal stick to add line.

After tea break Evie popped a jersey dress
over her leotard. Lovely drapes and folds
 to describe the body now obscured.
(Charcoal and pastel on tinted pastel paper).

Beautiful pose - 20 minutes - charcoal
on lavender blue tinted pastel paper with pastel to pick out main highlights.

Another longer pose, 30 minutes, interesting
angle of head and shoulders from my position.
(Graphite pencil on cartridge paper).

Another pose, another medium - watercolour on Bockingford
paper (140 lbs, Not surface) and no pencil drawing first as time of the essence!

Whew, we were all ready for the lunch break! I am amazed at the drawings and variety of poses Evie has provided us with already. After an hour of food, coffee and chatting to get to know some of the the other participants (other than Helen, who organized the event, I was pleased to see several other artists I already knew)  we were all eager to crack on again...

Two longer poses this time offering the chance to settle into work with a bit more substance.

1 hour pose, watercolour as underpainting on Art Spectrum cream paper
with pastel and charcoal.
Evie creates such a beautiful shape - interesting angles in the negative spaces,
yet fluid lines in her body.

Final pose of the day (1 hour again) and Evie definitely deserved to rest.
My heart sank initially when I looked at this view, it seemed so 'flat' but the more
I looked the more intrigued I became - the unusual angle, the shapes of the arms, the thrust of the torso,
the perspective of the lower legs and all that lovely netting of the tutu.
As my eye delighted in the inky black of her tutu I was glad that I had tucked in some Quink ink to my supplies at the last minute - perfect! Turned out to be my favourite pose and work of the day.     

    

A day of looking and seeing. Transcribing in line, tone and colour the fascination of the human form in a variety of configurations, and in several different media. Time well spent. Thank you Evie and all the other friendly people for such a lovely day, and to Helen for organising it!