LIFE DRAWING...Left and Right Handed.

I've been waiting all year to go to Artison again. ( www.artison.co.uk ) There has always been something clashing with the classes I wanted, but this was was booked before the holiday was in a slot.

Life Drawing. Something I have been longing to do. Luckily for us there were only four students. Not so lucky for Artison and I think they are planning to shut for the summer, a bit earlier next year.

The studio had been set up for us with lovely big easels and huge sheets of paper. After a short introduction to other artists' works we were given our first task. Draw the model with a piece of coloured chalk in two minutes, then holding the same colour spend two minutes working on each other's.

Some lovely combinations of line and colour and shape were produced.

Then we were given charcoal and the real mess began. We had to draw the model standing for a change.

Then move the charcoal to the other hand and have another go . The model moved so that we couldn't rely on any familiarity from the first attempt. The one on the left of the paper is my left hand and my second drawing. Yes, the model did still have a right foot but we were given only two minutes to do each one!

We were all amazed at how respectably identifiable our second drawings were and it encouraged us to move on with hope.

The next exercise took a longer time and was an attempt to get proportions right. When I took longer and tried harder the shapes weren't as loose and pleasing.

Mine is the one on the left. My proportions are okay but I love the sharper and bolder contrasts on my neighbour's work on the right. I want to do bolder too!

I try conte on ink coloured paper. Nice again but where is the bold? I plead with the tutor to teach me how to be free with my art.

She gives me a tub of ink and a big stick! I am very careful but still the ink dribbles down the paper, I panic and I have to blend it in with the knee fold. I'm obviously too anal-retentive for this. She relents and gives me a smaller pointed stick. I draw the model's face and it's good and she likes it too and so she smears charcoal all over the paper and erases bits to add texture to liven it up.It looks quite good. I think I'm happy.

But I'm really happy with the softness of this face and shoulders. I also love the ink faces. Overall I am very happy. I love my work and want to do more. I am exhausted and satisfied. It is all over and time to go home. 

I am sorting through the catalogue now selecting more art adventures for the rest of the year.

We watched the cricket...well the telly was on, and I could hear a lot of it. I went in to watch Agar get his century and stuffed that up so I stayed away till today. Ah well! DJ is happy and it's not all over yet.

Cheers Gillian