Last drawing of the symposium. Saved the best for last

   I thought I published this on April 8.  Doesn't seem to show up.  So I'm trying again.

  I cannot believe that I finished the three days with my strongest drawing.  This may be the strongest drawing I have ever done.  I'm judging this in terms of what I wanted and what I achieved.  I feel I exceeded my expectations for this one hour pose (which, with breaks was more like 45 minutes).  My line sensitivity was at its peak and the gentle use of the shading and multiple build ups of said shading created something I just wasn't prepared for.  I give all the credit to the previous 14 hours of drawing that led to this last hurrah of charcoal and paper.  This was everything I could hope for coming out of this creative maelstrom.  

  Thanks go to Shane Wolf and his wife for everything they endured to bring this to life.  The sponsors who helped defray the costs and give promotion to the symposium.  I'm still on a high from this and feel sad that I won't be getting such an intense experience again for over a year.  This showed me what could be and I am now trying to figure out how to keep this level up try and move forward.

Oh, so happy with these

  I hate admitting how much I like some of what I do, but this experience awoke something in me that made me realize that I only need to make myself happy.  If I'm happy then the final piece is probably something that others will be happy viewing.  

  The drawing of Nora is, unfortunately, on the backside of a page of gestures and so there is bleed through happening.  That doesn't take away, again for me, from how I feel about the drawing.  I had been immersing myself in the drawings of Nicolai Fechin and it was starting to manifest itself in my rendering.  I had several attendees and guest artists comment of the sensitivity of my line.  I had never thought of it that way and it caused me to look at my mark making differently, in a good way.

  The conté drawing of Stephan was difficult to just stop.  He is such a physically structured human being that I could see how the muscles linked to the bones of the skeleton under the skin.  The shadows were informed and the shapes and mass were a joy to draw.  Just can't say enough about all of the models I was privileged to work with/from.

Nora and Stephan in conté

 Some progress as the symposium rocketed along.  Each day just moved like lightning for me and I was not prepared for how deep into just drawing I was getting.  I was losing myself in the process and truly wasn't ready for each day to come to an end.

Anya and Stephan

 The top sketch is of Anya, a model I truly wanted to draw for a long period of time.  However, she was the model for the sculptors and turn every five minutes as well as changing her pose after a full turn to accommodate each sculptor and their particular pose.  So I only got one five minute chance and I worked with a similar pose to "flesh" it out.  

  The bottom sketch shows both Stephan and Anya, separate poses, as well as a couple of different poses.  The upper right sketch of the nose and eyes is of Nora.  

Gettin' better

 The image of Nora was drawn on day one from the far end of the studio but she kept turning her head.   It didn't matter that much as my eyesight made defining detail in her face quite a challenge.  The image of Will was the one I did on the mezzanine studio where I was much closer to the model.  It was a single 2 hour pose at the end of the first day.

Gestures and poses cut short

 Most of these are from the first day, where I was still feeling my way around and trying not to be intimidated or try too hard.  The two single drawings were poses I thought were a lot longer than they were, hence I ended up trying to finish with very little in the way of structure to work with.  I share my poor efforts as well as ones I am proud of.

Some "finished" stuff

 This page is the result of three different poses.  All three major models are represented.  The upper right image is of Stephan leaning on his hoop, the prop he uses in his act with Cirque du Soleil.

I spent 3 fabulous days at The Figure Society symposium

 Here are some of my gestures.  We worked with three outstanding models in the main studio all three days.  Two of them are Cirque du Soleil performers.  Spectacular opportunity.  These gestures may not make a lot of sense to everyone but I can see exactly what I was doing in this mess.  I was limited on what I could get to the symposium so I was working on a 14x17 pad and was trying to conserve my paper, hence so many poses just overlapping one another.  Anyhow, the gestures, in no particular order...

As usual, the long pose

 As I wandered around the studio it looked like everyone was getting a pretty good drawing from this pose.  My only wish is that I could have changed the lighting to really throw the right side of his head into shadow.  I would have if it weren't for the fact that we had 16 artists in the room and that would have messed up 15 others just for my wishes.

Swipes and picks

 Started this as just a bunch of big swipes of charcoal and then I use the kneaded eraser to pick out some of the highlights.  Mildly successful.

Startin' to warm up

 Didn't hate this one.  Was playing with lines and broad strokes.

A couple of different poses on the same page

 I wasn't quite into the evening yet, so I just did a couple sketches on the same bottom half of the page.  Just throwaway stuff.

Gestures of Mr. O

 16 artists packed out room last night.  9 students, 6 regulars and a new attendee.  A bit tight, to be sure.

Not my favorite of the night

 I was having fun, taking my time with this.  The problem?  There was too much time (I know, go figure) and I ended up finishing the face when I should have left the right eye, ear and the whole right side of his head unfinished.  Coulda done a second sketch or something.  This ain't bad, it's just not as cool as I wanted.

Two fer the price o' one...

 ... what a deal!  I probably enjoyed this page the most of all the sketches for the evening.  A plus is that it is on newsprint, not the bright white bond paper I use most of the time.

Started to look like sumpin'

 Ran outta time for this one.  It had potential.  And, just to be clear,  that squiggly line is indicative of his hair, not a malformed shoulder and trapezius.  

A blocky head study

 Really wanted to somehow use the term "block head", but that might be taken the wrong way.

Small group...I guess ya can't win 'em all.

 A messy batch of gestures started the evening off.  For me, the evening really didn't get much better.

Long pose (and it shows)

I focused on the head and hair but I'm pretty happy with how the figure turned out.  Needs more time but, who am I kidding...

Loose is as loose does

 Big strokes with little noodling involved.  Fun and relaxed drawing.