Saturday afternoon saw me at the untutored life session at the Leith School of Art in Edinburgh, which is bookable by term or, fabulously for those of us who only get to the city occasionally, available as a drop-in session. Two models are present, one for a long pose with artist Kenneth le Riche leading that and running the session overall (friendly welcome, sorting me out with an easel/board and paper/charcoal, ensuring the models got breaks, etc.) and the other model for short poses (with artist Gay Grossart keeping track of timing).
No surprise I opted for the short-poses model, who was fabulous at selecting poses with minimal guidance and at holding them for up to 20 minutes. I started with charcoal on A1 paper for the first three five-minute warm-up poses, then swapped to Inktense blocks on A2 paper, using the corner of a rag dipped in water to ‘activate’ it. The atmosphere in the studio was friendly and focused. I came away with a bunch of drawings, feeling very energized. This is my favourite:
Pencil and Inktense sticks on A2 paper
And here’s a selection of what I produced:
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I found myself wishing the Inktense blocks were available as tints of colours, as pastels are, because drawing with them with a heavy-handed strong line it’s then all too easy to end up with too much colour when I added water. I’ll have to experiment with using white beneath/on top before adding water. Also with using the brush/cloth to lift off excess colour, though as the studio was very warm (for the model’s sake) the ink dried extremely rapidly (and once it’s dry, it’s permanent).
My thanks to everyone at the Leith School of Art for a great creative afternoon.
