sound and motion

I recently spent some time in Toronto ON, working with a friend who is studying performance and movement arts at York University.  We had seven 8-hour studio sessions booked; here are a few of the drawings I made during that time.

oil paint marker on bond paper, 24x36"

A long time ago I did a lot of life drawing, working with professional artists' models who would hold very still for durations of time.  It's an excellent practice, one I would recommend to anyone wanting to hone their drawing skills.

oil paint marker on bond paper, 24x36"

Once I'd honed my own drawing skills (a 4-year process of drawing from life models several times a week), I began to be bored with immobile humans.  It's very unnatural for anyone to sit still for any length of time; in fact it's inhuman.  So I stopped.

oil paint marker on bond paper, 24x36"

Instead, I drew people while travelling on transit.  I learned that it takes 30-45 seconds for most people to realize they're being observed, at which point the drawing must be finished.  I got really quick at making portraits!  And I've kept up making portraits all these years, mostly in 9x12" sketchbooks.

oil paint marker on bond paper, 24x36"

Sketchbook portraits aside, I have done extremely little figure drawing in 20 years.  So it was a very open-ended endeavour to work with my friend, who would be in almost-constant motion.  And I went minimalist, bringing only big paper and drawing tools.  No paint, no brushes!

oil paint marker on bond paper, 24x36"

A challenge.  We didn't know whether anything would come of it, so we held no expectations.  I made some drawings of the movements she made, and some drawings of the sounds of her voice & body as she moved through the space.

oil paint marker on pale grey mystery paper, 22x32"

oil paint marker on bond paper, 24x36"

About halfway into our time together, some of my markers began running out.  I saw this as an opportunity to procure a couple of hardware-store brushes and a bit of ink.  ;-)

various drawing media + ink on vellum roll, 24" x 10 yards

same roll, opposite direction

Mixed in between all this I made a bunch of large portraits.  

Because I can.  Somehow I can draw fast enough, even on a larger scale, to make portraits while a person is moving, and taking on various personas, and talking-whispering-yelling, and generally doing everything but staying still.  

I'm enthralled by the magic of that: a person just being human, and me drawing them.

oil paint marker, China marker on bond paper, 24x36"

oil paint marker, charcoal, China marker on bond paper, 24x36"

oil paint marker and China marker on blue mystery paper, 22x32"

oil paint marker and China marker
on pre-painted BFK Rives paper, 24x36"

oil paint marker, China marker on BFK Rives paper, 24x36"

oil paint marker and ink on green mystery paper, 22x32"

oil paint marker, China marker, ink on brown mystery paper, 22x32"

oil paint marker and ink on black mystery paper, 22x32"

It was really cool to see my drawings emerge as we worked: to see my same basic style from years ago when I worked large scale from models, now augmented by 20+ intervening years of non-figurative art-making.

At the end, we are hoping to work together again, perhaps next year, and perhaps using some different materials.  

Already, ideas begin to emerge.  Wait.  Let them pupate.  See what happens.