Sorry for the delay...

 Took a trip out of town so I didn't get these shot before last night.  Here are the gesture drawings.

 Samm has really become a fantastic figure model.  She commits totally to giving the artists exactly what they want and has pushed her gestures to another level.  We are lucky to have her.

Twist

 This is my favorite of the session and it was the first pose of the night (sans the gesture poses).  In my  eyes, it all went downhill for me from this point.

Knees, shins and a little blue book

 I wasn't enamored with this pose so I just focused on the knees and the shadows.

Shadows and shapes

 Ran out of (say it with me) time.  This had a chance to be a pretty nice sketch.

45 minutes (or thereabouts)

 This was a lost opportunity.  I was having so much fun with manipulating the shadows that I didn't pay as close of attention to the basics.

Gestures with Patience

Scribble, scribble, scribble...
 

As per usual, the long pose

 

I was thoroughly enjoying the beautiful shadows and how informed the shapes and mass of the figure.  Really a nice pose to work from.

Fifteen minutes again

This one deserved more time.  I would love to have gotten to her head and neck in a more meaningful way.
 

The fifteen minute face...

 ...without eyes.  (Apologies to Billy Idol for twisting his lyric)

The two 10 minute drawings

 Just kinda gettin' warmed up with these.

Gestures of Dylan

 Our last session with Dylan for a while yielded some wonderful poses.  Gestures, anyone?

45

 I was really enjoying this one.  Of course, foreshortening is a favorite of mine.  I love the way the pose draws the eye across the legs and then into the torso in a reverse Z pattern.  I think leaving her head out of the drawing gives the sketch more legitimacy than having the eye stop with her face.  Or I could be wrong.

Fifteen

 So many shadows to work with that I didn't progress as far as I had hoped.  I like the texture that I applied, though.

The other ten minute pose

 Again, I was fascinated with shapes and wasn't concerned about creating a full figure.

First ten minute pose of the session

 I was really getting into the various shapes and didn't care that I didn't get even a wee bit close to a finished sketch.  Lots of smudging and sculpting with vine charcoal.

Back to work... hopefully for a long time

 Dylan has come back for a couple of weeks.  These are the gestures that got us all motivated for the rest of the session.

First 10 minute of the session...

 ...and it turned out to be my favorite drawing of the night.  Sometimes it pays to quit when one's ahead.

Languid

 Not a lot here but the long lines really speak to me.  I would have considered trying to finish this one but I wrinkled the paper and rendered that a moot point.

Lovin' the vine charcoal here

 Smudgy goodness abounds with this sketch.  I really didn't give the drapery its due attention.  An issue with time, unfortunately.  I am, however, pretty happy with the figure itself.

The long pose

 I was getting experimental with the manner in which I drew this, whereas I think there is some good stuff here, ultimately I'm not very satisfied with the result.

Sleepy Bye

 The restful pose.  I wasn't very successful with this one.

Gestures of Samm

 Samm really gave us some wonderful gesture poses.  So much fun to work with the dynamics she displayed.

 

 

Like a racoon

 My favorite of the evening.  Last pose before the break and I had about 9 minutes.  I loved the shadows around her eyes and bridge of her nose.  I opted to work the areas of interest rather than get all of the pieces knocked in, leaving a much more incomplete drawing than I already have.  At least this one looks artistic in its choices.

The long pose

 I had an entirely different plan for this pose but it wasn't working out so I started building out, and I'm glad I did.

Headed to Roots

 Earlier this year we had the good fortune to have a small screech owl family spend some time in our trees.  They were fairly tolerant of my constant picture taking.  Charcoal and white pastel 4.5 x 6.5.

Darn that clock!

 I was really, really enjoying this drawing (really, I was) when time ran out.  The movement would have been awesome to capture but all I had the time for was to indulge in those beautiful shadows.  I would have had an absolute ball rendering the rib cage and belly.  Alas...

Hand on hip

 I'm really loving the shadows that we are getting these last couple of weeks.  This is a partial torso sketch based around the cast shadow.  The drawing ain't much but the journey was fun.

Gestures of Samm

 

As always, Samm just does an amazing job for The Black Hand Group.  

And the favorite of the evening is...

 ...this little fifteen minute sketch.  I was drawn in with the beautiful strong shadow cast down her side and the way it just gave up when it hit her waist.  Not giving her oblique even a token line kind of tilts the figure, but I'm okay with that.  Moving up to where her neck meets under her jaw and the little suggestion of her mouth and nose and even eyelashes, just made me so very happy.  Even with the clock expiring, which usually makes me quite angry, I think it was a blessing to be forced to stop.  Just a great drawing experience.

Long pose

 I really like this sketch and loved the pose, but it wasn't my favorite of the evening.  Tune in tomorrow for that one...

Partial head study

 I get lost in the shadows that Dylan's cheeks cast.  They just beg to be interpreted and represented by sloppy and seemingly random slashes of charcoal.  It's almost sculptural when I get going on that kind of shadow.

10 minutes

 So many interesting lines and shapes that it just is an injustice to only have ten minutes to get anything done.

Gestures of Dylan

 Some very dynamic poses of Dylan.  One minute per pose, gotta get what I can in 60 seconds!

Samm gets comfortable

 I'm pretty happy with this one, the wonderful cast shadows and the elegant tilt to the pose.  This is a nice one (in my extremely humble opinion).

Shadows and shapes

 This was a fun little experiment in abstract realism.  Only about 10 minutes with this one so I chose to just focus on an area.

Samm at rest

 Just a study in unfinished body parts.  A couple of fingers here, a hint of hip, a start of the head.  You know, not even an attempt to finish this one.

Two fer one

 I stuck two poses on the same page.  Wish I had moved the second drawing down further...

Gestures of Samm

 The normal 10 sketches with Samm putting her all into it.  

Lost edges and heavy shadows

 This fifteen minute sketch was my favorite of the evening.  A lot of great shadows and some fun lost edges really make this an image I can be okay with.

Long pose

 This was coming along fairly nicely when, surprise, time ran out.  So many nice shadows defining some really great shapes.  This was a lot of fun to work on.

Conté profile

 

A profile study.  Meh, not my best effort.

Hippy hippy shake

Loved the movement and the really fun cast shadow across the belly.  This makes for some really fun time at the easel.