Another Day

I had another attempt at Anne's face last session.

Naked Man Holding a Cup. A quick silverpoint drawing I did at my last life drawing session. This was done with a biggish piece of stirliing silver onto a light yellow toned gouache paper. I've proven to myself that silverpoint doesn't have to be all painstaking fine lines and cross hatching. I really liked the natural pose. This was just as he was standing naturally during our coffee break. I prefer these poses to the more contrived poses that models are often encouraged to assume in life drawing classes.

A detail of Anne's face after another session.

I've been doing more drawing recently, trying out different mediums, and I thought I would try out the ancient technique of silver point. Siver point is, as the name suggests, simply drawing with a sharpened piece of silver onto paper that has been prepared with a coating of gouache to impart a tooth. For my first atempt I sketched Dale sat knitting whilst watching TV. A rare occasion that finds her sat still!

I have been working on Anne's fluoresent orange plastic crocs and struggling to relate how I see everything to the chair I painted. Perhaps Pearlstein knows something afterall..  I have had to move the chair up in relation to the figure slightly. It's still a constant juggling act at this stage for me, I find. I've begun Anne's face and she is looking rather fierce. I feel the face needs to be smaller perhaps.

Here is the progress so far on the portrait of Anne.  I worked on her clasped hands which are in a strong focal point in the composition.  I'm not happy with them and they will need repainting, however it gives me something to relate everything else to. I also have started to establish the chair itself.  I worked on it when she wasn't there. Just a couple of pillows and her fluorescent orange crocs ..!  I am always conscious of wasting peoples time, just sitting for my benefit. Painting from life always seems such a self indulgent activity in many ways.  I read somewhere that the American figurative painter Phillip Pearlstein insists that his models are sitting there even when he's painting the furniture... but that seems a bit excessive to me.  Sometimes I wonder if you perhaps have to be a bit of a sadist to paint people from life.  Bowls of apples don't make me feel so guilty.

Self Portrait in Fading Light III Oil on Arches paper 212x205mm Self Portrait in Fading Light IV Oil on paper 170x110mm