Figure Drawing 2024-01-28
Some new work.
One of my Covid lockdown projects was to join the 21st century and finally learn how to use a tablet. I picked up an Intuos Pro at Cambridge’s legendary Micro Center and took a class at Udemy on Krita, the open source digital painting suite.
Covid lockdowns also launched a worldwide phenomenon of online figure drawing. Drawing models who wouldn’t be able to work otherwise started hosting their own sessions on Zoom, or arranging them through artists who had to close down their in-person open drawing sessions. To practice on the tablet, I would attend these sessions.
Drawing on a tablet feels weird and disembodied, and drawing a model through a screen feels weird and disembodied. But in combination the double indirection kind of works. There are in fact upsides. I’ve had the opportunity to work with models as far away as Ukraine and Argentina. (The Hispanosphere, particularly Buenos Aires and Barcelona, is loaded with top-notch figure modeling talent.) A lot of the models are running their own operations instead of trying to gig at other people’s venues. (Universities are infamous for taking forever to pay them.) Now that I’m out here in the hinterlands of New Hampshire the availability of internet drawing sessions is a boon. The online figure drawing movement is a distinct and self-contained art world that in many respects operates on far healthier premises than the standard one.
For the below, the model is Haley (Instagram @maizygermaine), the session was organized by Judith Yaws, and the theme was Degas. (Not every session is themed, but each organizer has their own approach.) Prompted by the theme, I was moved to try a full-blown pastel palette instead of my usual black-and-white chalks on colored ground. “Pastel,” so-called; this is all digital.
Degas aside, I think some Kirchner was trying to come out.
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" I picked up an Intuos Pro at Cambridge’s legendary Micro Center..." That particular Micro Center is truly Geek Heaven! Never have I found a better selection of parts and devices of all things Tech.
Anyway, thanks for the tip about the whole online drawing concept! Over the years I've found it not easy to find any "real" figure drawing classes for years since RISD. Sure, if you happened to live in Providence or Boston (and I assume NYC or LA), great, anywhere else: yer outta luck. For a while, the Rockport Art Association had a great one running every Monday night, and for only $15 a session. They had some truly phenomenal models too (though that had the unintended effect of making my drawings appear almost insultingly poor). But at some point, it got switched to the middle of day on Thursdays, which meant it only worked for the retired or comfortably unemployed...
In any case, it never occurred to me to look for online figure drawing sessions. Now I certainly will. Are there any aggregated sites that offer multiple sessions, or is this just a Search and Find type of thing?
I hate the fact that this work is so good! I want only real hands on real implements against real items to be capable of beauty! You haven't converted me, but I do concede - this time - in your general direction!