Drawing from Life

 As I have written many times before, I do prefer drawing from life when I can, especially for the main figures of a particular image, or at least when what I need is not something I can easily find in photo form. I decided that I had enough to do with planned prints that I could justify hiring a model.  After attending 4 sessions of Joe's figure group, I chose a model who I thought looked as I wanted and could hold a pose for long enough.  Had Joe contact her for me, we made the arrangements, and today was the day.  I had the blocks ready, and got there a few minutes early to prepare the space.  That meant clearing my table and putting the large paper boxes up on the window ledges to block some of the light on this sunny day.  Not completely blocked, but effective enough. Then I went upstairs.  A whole bunch of people came in, going to classes it looked like.  My model showed up right on time.  I showed her my boardwalk pieces on the first floor (since that was one of the things I planned to work on today) and then guided her down to my studio space. Might have been difficult for her to find on her own.

I had sent her a long list of wardrobe and props to bring, which she replied that she appreciated getting.  She had everything I had told her about and was ready to go quickly.  I set up the tripod easel with clamp light and we did the standing pose for the Robert Johnson print first.  We tried various positions of her standing pose next to this light until I found one that gave me nice shadows and light on her, while matching the light and shadows on the reclining figure in bed.  I think it was successful.  Results of where I am at today can be seen below:

After a short break and the putting away of the clamp light and turning on of the regular fluorescents in the room, I gave her a chair for the sitting poses.  She also used the opportunity to change into the clothing for the boardwalk piece.  She also asked about food in the area, and I gave her a list of all the fast food places across from our building in various directions, and more variety and higher cost if she wanted to go up the street into Ocean Grove, or into Asbury Park.  

Then we got to the boardwalk print.  Here I wanted her to sit down on what would be seen as benches, portraying various characters. She had brought some clothing to change into.  I offered to show her to a more private place to change if she wanted, especially as our windows are now clear and at ground level, but she said she didn't mind crouching down low, and my presence in her underwear was not a problem since she had posed nude for me before.  (her words) She changed into one set of clothes, then the other, sitting in the chair at the proper angle, positioning legs, arms, and props as I directed.  Result are below, the two figures in the lower left corner:

I think the one in the foreground is fine, but I think I will make some changes to the other figure, certainly making her a little smaller, and maybe fixing other things as well.  What it needs requires putting the block down on a table and working with pencil and eraser, and that just wasn't possible standing and holding pencils and erasers, as I was doing.  But I did have enough to get started, and with her permission I had taken reference photos of each pose, so I can go back and fix things as needed.  

All this took a little less than the two hours I had booked, but I paid her the full amount anyway, then led her to the front door, from which she could see her car and decide where she wanted to go for food.  The model had much praise for the work I had done, but she is hoping for more work, so I don't take that seriously.  I took the above photos of the various blocks in their new form, then went home to organize my stuff for later, and take photos of the blocks.  I put the room back the way I found it this morning.  May be a while before I get to working on these, as I have a bunch of other things to work on, but when I am ready, I have something to work on.