This past Wednesday during the figure drawing session at Studio b., I used conte and nupastel for my warm-up gestures, and graphite, CarbOthello pastels, watercolor pencils, and a graphite wash for my drawings. I suppose if I stuck to one medium, I would develop more expertise in handling it, but I love making different kinds of marks using different media.
If I am purposefully drawing, then I will slow down and try to be a better craftsman, being more meticulous with whatever medium I have chosen, perhaps even making a few practice drawings of the subject or pose. But figure drawing almost always demands a hurried pace.
June is the busiest month of the year for my pool service business, so this week I was just using the figure drawing session as a meditative exercise resulting in wonderful stress release. For 2½ hours, I had no emergencies to respond to, no anxious customers, no mechanical failures to deal with. Even as difficult as figure drawing is, the process brings on an exhilaration, a euphoria, a feeling of power and connectedness. I am sure the challenge of the difficulty helps make it so satisfying, the requirement of absolute concentration and focus. But mostly it is the sheer joy of expression that I love, the creation of form and feeling through marks on a paper.
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Most of my images are available for purchase. Contact me if you are interested. — Joan Vienot