I began this drawing by covering my sheet of paper entirely with charcoal, until it was solid black, a really thick layer. I then carved into this delicate surface with a hard eraser, as well as my fingertips and palm of my hand, to gradually reveal the white paper underneath. This is a really fun method of working and is pretty much the opposite of how I normally work. I usually add marks to a clean sheet of paper, but with this drawing I suppose I'm employing a sort of "reduction" technique - by removing tone to varying degrees instead of adding and building it up in pencil marks.
There was much group discussion before and after each pose, so by the time I began working on the second drawing, the natural light in our studio had changed dramatically, dusk had properly kicked in. My response to this was to flip my process again, this time I working with chalk on black coloured paper:
Switching into this method was quite a head-fuck at first but by the end I was having a tonne of fun. I really dig both techniques and can't wait to experiment with them again.
Each pose was held for about an hour or so. The common theme of a figure, accompanied by a feeling of the space it's in, and the clear sense of light outside - as my subject - was intentional and a choice I arrived at through focussed observation at the start of each pose. See my post on the previous class for more on what I mean by this.
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