Rules Are Made to be Broken

10/31/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor pen,
Canson All-Media paper (20-min. pose)

In the life drawing classes I’ve taken and in the books I’ve read on the subject, the recommended media are always loose and broad like charcoal, soft pencils or big splashy brushes. We are told to stand at the easel and draw with the whole arm, making large strokes, not tiny lines with the hand. The instructors and authors always say that doing life drawing practice is not about making drawings of a recognizable person. It’s about seeing where the model’s weight is in the pose, feeling the gesture in your own body, transferring that feeling to the paper with a loose, expressive mark, etc., etc. I get all that, and I understand the value of it. And while I filled a whole punch card at Gage’s life drawing studio and half of the second one, I was a good student who followed all the rules.

10/31/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink (20-min. pose)

But today, something happened. (Maybe Halloween brings out the rebel in me.) After a bunch of loose two-minute and five-minute poses, I suddenly said to myself, What if I feel like actually trying to capture the model’s likeness? What if I feel like using my favorite Sailor pen to make tight, controlled marks? Bwaa-haa-haa! I’m going to!

(I should have just done drugs in college like everyone else and gotten my rebelliousness out of my system in a normal manner.)

10/31/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Sailor pen (20-min. pose)