Actors in Rehearsal : The Medea Effect
Last week, fortunate circumstances allowed me another step in an ongoing experiment. I like to say this is a thing I do – but in truth, it’s a very rare privilege that doesn’t happen very often. For only the second time in my career, I’ve been sketching actors in rehearsal.
This time, James Loye and Jennifer Morehouse at work on the Talisman Theatre production of The Medea Effect, on stage February 3 to 7, 2015 at the Segal Centre Studio. (Get Tickets Here)
Readers of the blog might remember my 2013 sketches from the Centaur Theatre production of Innocence Lost: A play about Steven Truscott.
I’ve been tremendously lucky to get another chance at this unusual experience. Being in the room, a fly on the wall, observing the actors, director, and motion designer at work. Seeing their trade-craft, and learning more than most will ever know about the subtext of the play.
It’s uncommonly generous of them to allow me to watch their process. After all – it’s meant to be seen, much like a painting, only in the finished state. After they’ve fully mastered the roles. Yet I’m there to see the relationship form before my eyes. The characters become real, and the tension between them deepens.
[Pencil, with light washes on Stillman & Birn Epsilon Series Sketchbook 8.5 x11″]
The play rests entirely on the interaction between two people. It must be a tremendous challenge for the actors – they’re called upon to create a complex psychological narrative with only body language and gesture – a larger, gradually revealed, hidden story, that rides above-and-beyond the simple words they’re speaking. I’ve only seen the first half of the thing – and the suspense is killing me!
In rehearsal – there’s nothing but the actors. No costumes, no set. Though the actual performance will be presented in a stripped down almost bare set, it will be enriched with lighting, sound and video. Here there’s nothing to distract from the physicality of their performance.
It’s surprising to me, in this age of video games and film. I mean – I’m right there – only a few feet way from these people. Their voices are LOUD. You actually feel the tension. Even a stomped foot or a snapped gesture makes a solid noise. A tossed chair can really mess you up.
For me the first day is a matter of studying their faces. Getting to know the actors. It’s a kind of portrait exercise. Research drawings. I’ll be going back next week, and we will see what develops. Like I say, the suspense is killing me. Like all drawing from life – you only get one chance to make a record. I’m just hoping to live up to the experience.
(Update: click over to day two of the rehearsal).
Announcement: Urban Sketchers Workshop, Coventry UK, April 8-10
Urban Sketchers Isabel Carmona, Simone Ridyard and Swasky are putting on a three day workshop in Coventry, UK.
I won’t be able to attend myself, but encourage anyone who might be in the area to find out more on the USK workshops page.
Sketching People in Motion is Now LIVE!
Thanks to everyone who entered the draw for a free registration! We have three winners from 500 entries. One from here, one from USK:MTL, and one from Urbansketchers.org, It’s great to see that much interest in the new course!
For everyone who didn’t win – I can at least offer you a small Blog Readers Discount :) Approximately 15% off just for being a reader of Citizen Sketcher. Just click over to the new VIDEOS page, for the discounted registration link and details about the class.
Book Excerpt : Simple Sight Measuring Example
This is the second in a post series of ‘excerpts’ from my book The Urban Sketcher. This time I’m going right back to the very first lesson in the book; Sight Measuring.
I shouldn’t really call these excerpts. This is more like the director’s cut. Here’s the full length text, before edits for word count limits and layout. Mainly, because this is the text I have easily available in electronic form, but also, so you get the full explanation, and larger pictures.
[Excerpt from The Urban Sketcher Begins]
You are probably familiar with the image of the artist with their arm extended, holding a brush upright, their thumb up like a hitchhiker. Usually they are shown with their eyes squinted and tongue sticking out. This is not just a funny cartoon image of an artist – it’s a real measuring technique!
In this shot I am checking things like the angle of the sloped street, and the height of the windows.
The idea is, we want to spot errors in proportion in the first few minutes of a sketch. I use two simple techniques called Sight Measuring and Angle Checking. These are a simplified version of what academic ateliers might call Sight-Size Drawing.
There’s nothing worse than drawing in a lot of interesting details, only to realize you’ve drawn an important part out of scale. Or worse yet, you haven’t judged the height right, and you’re about to go off the edge of the page. That has happened to me many many (many) times. It’s quite frustrating to say the least :)
This sake set, found at a Chinatown knickknack shop, is a great introductory subject for sketching ‘outside in’.
To recap, the plan of attack is: get the outside silhouette shape first, spot check your accuracy, and then proceed to subdivide into smaller and smaller details until the whole thing is drawn.
The very first step is to decide roughly how large you want the drawing on the page.
Mark a small dash at the top and the bottom of your subject and lightly sketch a ‘scribble’ of the outside shape. No internal detail, just the silhouette, as if it was cut out of a piece of paper. (Pencil sketch is darkened for clarity).
This simple outline is all you need to ensure accumulating proportional errors don’t expand off the edge of the page. You have a ‘box’ to work within. All future details will fit inside this box. Or that is, they will, once we make sure the silhouette is accurate.
The best thing is, that scribble only took a few seconds. We don’t mind correcting a scribble. There is nothing to lose. If I’d gone right into the pattern or shading on the object, I’d start to get that feeling of, ‘oh, I like what I’ve done! I can’t erase that – it will be ok, I’ll just keep going’. Until, suddenly it’s not ok – it’s way off :)
Here’s how sight measuring works.
As you look at the subject, extend your arm straight (elbow locked), and line up the tip of your pencil with the top of the subject. Slide your thumb down until it’s lined up with the base. That position you’ve marked on your brush or pencil – that is a unit measure you can use to check against other objects.
(Line A)
Keep your thumb in position on the pencil to preserve the measurement you have marked. Keep your elbow locked to maintain the same distance from the subject.
Now, look for something you can compare your measurement against.
It so happens that the height of the jar is equal to the width across the three cups.
(Line A = Line B)
So, if we compare the height and width on our drawing– oops! The drawing is not correct.
See how we have caught that error with this simple measuring trick?
It’s really not a big deal, this is a pretty small error. In a simple subject like this it wouldn’t really matter that much, it’s not like people won’t know it’s a sake set :) But since it’s so easy to spot the issue and fix it, I might as well refine my sketch. I’ll make that fix to the silhouette so that the jar height (A) matches the cup width (B).
Blue lines are the original scribble, grey pencil the revised drawing.
The other big thing in this step is to sketch in the dividing line between the dark ceramic base and the upper patterned area. And, I fix a proportion error on the width of the neck.
This is what I mean by working larger-to-smaller. Once you have the outside shape, what is the next biggest thing you can draw? The ‘waist’ of the bottle is the next-to-largest shape. Dividing the jar in half. If you keep dividing each shape by half, eventually you are drawing very small details.
The other kind of sight measurement is what I call an Angle Check. Measuring the slope between two points.
When drawing outdoors, this is ideal for finding roof lines or checking perspective on narrowing city streets.
Place the base of the pencil on the first point, (the edge of the cup) holding the pencil perfectly vertically, rotate the tip until it lines up with your second point (the lip of the jar). In this case, rotating counter clockwise.
Now – lock your wrist. Don’t lose the angle of the pencil. Place it over your drawing, and see how well the angle lines up with what you’ve drawn. Not too bad hey? It’s looking reasonably close after widening those cups.
At this point, my planning is done. I can sit back and have fun with the pattern. That fish scale design is what attracted me to the thing in the first place. But by starting outside-in, I can see for certain I have a shape I like before I get into those details.
I want to be able to freely scribble in that pattern, without a care in the world. It’s a picky thing, sketching those repeating shapes – and I don’t want to stiffen up while doing it.
I wouldn’t feel as ‘ free’ if I wasn’t sure about the underlying structure. If I had to start and stop the pattern a few times, erasing and correcting the shape, it wouldn’t turn out as ‘loose and sketchy’ as I want.
Oddly, it’s the measuring that allows the sketch to look spontaneous. I’ve heard artists use a saying; ‘loose is how a drawing looks, not how it’s made’.
This particular example is fairly faithful to reality, because the subject is an easy one. As we move on through the book, you’ll see I only use as much precision as I need to get the sketch on paper. Those measurements only took seconds to do. In no way do I want this to become hard labor.
My feeling is, you should do whatever measuring you need to do so that you are satisfied with your drawing. You decide how accurate you want it to be.
I enjoy it when everyone can recognize my subjects, but I don’t want to be doing so much measuring that the drawing feels mechanical. Accuracy is a skill I want to have, it helps me do more challenging things. But I don’t ever want it to slow me down.
[Excerpt from The Urban Sketcher Ends]
Cutting Room Floor : Montreal Tattoo Expo
Here’s a few drawings from the 2013 Montreal Art Tattoo Expo that didn’t make it into The Urban Sketcher.
In the book one of these drawings is broken down into six step-by-step illustrations, showing exactly how these are done.
It’s kind of fun to see a gradual improvement from the sketches I did at the 2012 show.
Called out by the Model
[Long pose session, these were half hour warmups. Watercolor, 12×16″]
I was at the daytime long pose session at George Vanier Cultural Centre, which is always a nice opportunity. It’s one hour longer than a standard life drawing workshop. Which is just fine by me. I like to get at least two watercolors out of a long pose – so that extra hour to warm up feels like a luxury.
I was happily sketching way – trying to to focus on a few things:
- Draw directly with the brush (dropping my pencil drawing safety net),
- Establish a silhouette with the first few strokes,
- Work color variation into the shapes while wet, (charging in).
- Don’t neglect the background tone. I’m often making figures on blank whiteness.
That was going well enough. But in the break our model called me out.
“I look like a 9 year old girl!” she says.
Rightly so. That was a weird mistake. Not sure how it happened. Her head had definitely gotten large and child like.
In the second half, I pushed to get a real likeness. I’ve been giving myself a free pass on likeness for so long (I mean, you have to start somewhere, and getting a nice figure is hard enough, I just say “Don’t worry if it doesn’t even look like them. After the model is gone, who’s going to know?’). But the time has come that I have to be able to get both a painting and a portrait, hey? If I’m going to do this work professionally :)
I’ve only done a few commissioned portraits – and each and every one of them has been sweating bullets. Until this year. Magically – that practice stuff is starting to pay off.
I’m pretty happy with this one. In particular, the shape of her hair and cast shadows on the forehead. At the time her hair was throwing me off my stride – I only realized it after the fact – it’s because Afro-textured hair doesn’t reveal the shape of the skull like I’m used to in a Caucasian. Funny – It’s one of my own bon mots that a portrait is just a ‘Head Shape / Hair Shape’. Yet it took me a few tries to get it right on her.
I’m glad Sarah called me out. I needed that push. That right there is a hidden reason to work from life. You don’t get that collaboration from photo reference.
Brush-wise: In the future I have to focus on a few more things:
- Make the shadow shapes melt a bit more into the light,
- Same with the background – more lost edges – less cut out shapes,
- Wet-on-dry gives you plenty of control – but it errs on the side of sharp edges,
- I’m going to experiment with painting the figure in reverse silhouette next time – to allow better melting into the background.
Book Excerpt : Sketching En-Passant
I thought I’d do a few posts excerpting sections from my book The Urban Sketcher. I’ll be resurrecting some stuff that was cut due to space limitations, and taking the opportunity to show larger images than we can get away with in print.
Here’s the section as it is in my manuscript, before the final edits in the book:
>>>>
[Excerpt from The Urban Sketcher Begins]
Exercise #9: Sketching En Passant: or The Long View: So the final situation to discuss is the capturing of people who are truly in motion. Not conveniently doing something for your amusement, but only seen for a few moments as they flow through your drawing. I call it ‘en passant’, the chess term for ‘capturing in passing’.
In the normal case of a person walking towards you, even in the best situation where you have an unobstructed view, you have only the time between spotting your approaching subject and about 20 or 30 feet before they pass you by. It’s very rare that you have a longer sight line than this. People in the extreme distance are just too small, and are frequently blocked by the crowd in front.
So we can say you have a 10-15 second window to sketch. I would agree, that is not a lot of time. But! Of course, I have a strategy for this situation.
There are two things you can do to help yourself out. The first, and most basic, is to widen the window of opportunity. Try and find a position that gives you the longest possible view of the most people.
You want to be a small island in a river of people, with a long straight, preferably up or down hill view. (A steep angle allows seeing over people’s heads. They don’t obscure each other as much).
To avoid being jostled by pedestrian traffic, I’ll lean with my back against a wall or a lamp post, so I’m only a little bigger than an obstacle they’d have to avoid anyway.
If you can get up somewhere, a balcony or bridge, you can benefit from the bird’s eye view. Other possibilities are the head of a long escalator, (trapping people for a few moments gliding up to you). Or across from the exit to a stadium or theater when a big show is letting out.
If nothing else presents itself, you can use any major downtown intersection during rush hour. Scribble people waiting for the crosswalk as they stream out of the office buildings.
The further you can see, and the more populated the street, the more fuel you will have for your fire. You want the best possible view for the longest possible time. (Even if that’s not very long).
In these examples, I scribbled in pencil and did calligraphic line over top using three colors of ink and a dipping nib. It was a cold windy October day, so I had plenty of interesting scarves, hats and jackets to sketch. The best character was a person wearing a neon orange plastic rain poncho and dragging a pair of bulging black garbage bags. This is a classic example of something you couldn’t make up.
The second thing you can do to increase your time window, is to cheat.
Don’t restrict yourself to one ‘exposure’. Instead of trying to draw an entire person in that 20 second window, I create a composite figure, combining multiple passersby, as if they were key frames of a single character in motion.
In a given crowd of people there are always ‘types’. People dress according to fashion trends, their jobs and economic standing, and the local weather.
In a street market in Asia there will be a never ending selection of wiry guys in t-shirts, shorts, and flip flops, often carrying heavy loads on their backs. On a blustery day in Montreal, everyone has long scarves, layered jackets, and wool caps.
You can choose a ‘type’ – such as the smartly dressed man walking his dogs – and if you’ve chosen well, you’ll get another matching type in short order. In this area of expensive condos, it didn’t take long to get another dog walker.
Just as with the key frames of repeating motions, I can combine these passing ‘twins’ into a single drawing. Try and spot your character types as far back as possible, and keep your eye on them. Don’t get distracted by anyone else until they get so close they’re about to stride out of your working zone.
If I can gather one detail from each person – the shape of a hairstyle, a pair of glasses, the clasps on a bag – fairly quickly I have an entire composite figure. The gesture is the framework I am looking to fill in. I am adding appropriate details on top of the gesture, so it hangs together as a convincing person.
The character types that are more common are by definition best descriptions of the time and place you are in. Whatever you are seeing a lot of, is what will get drawn.
Try to get four or five character types going at once and you can do the multi-tasking trick while you wait for clones to appear.
This is an excellent time to try skipping pencil and going straight to ink – if you dare! Speed is of the essence here, so perhaps this is the best time to save a step. En passant is a great way to become more comfortable sketching without the safety net of pencil.
You end up drawing so many people so quickly this way, it’s possible to get a tremendous amount of training in a single day. A year’s worth of life drawing classes in a week.
A serious student might set aside a small sketchbook, and try to fill the entire book with direct-to-ink en passant sketches. Can you devour your way through an entire book in a week? Or a month? If you can do it, without editing yourself, or concerning yourself with ‘quality’ – simply devoting yourself to the process, I am sure you will see tremendous results.
Here’s an example where I went directly to ink. I’m using all the ideas we’ve covered, drawing Outside in, gesture followed by Calligraphy, and Spot Blacks. Doing it all in one continuous process.
With these ones I’m using the Lamy Safari Fountain Pen and a Kuretake Sumi Brush Pen
I normally prefer the more aggressive line weight of a dip pen, and the more expressive range of a natural brush – but when you are doing it as fast as humanly possible, these kind of cartridge fed fountain pens are more practical. The chance of an ink spill goes up considerably when you’re in a rush.
[Excerpt from The Urban Sketcher Ends – thanks and hope you like the book!
Order now from Amazon or your local bookshop].
The Weary Gladiator
I don’t usually post nude figure drawings on this blog. I have another page for that (over here). But, as my life drawing classwork gets better, there’s becoming an overlap between the academic stuff, and the urban sketching. The way I’m doing spontaneous watercolor portraits – it’s all sort of all the same thing these days.
Anyway, I won’t make a habit of it. Posting too many life drawing studies just gets repetitive. But I did go to a couple sessions the other week – as part the traditional “It’s January, let’s go back to the gym”, kind of new years resolution :)
[Figure drawing workshop, various 10, 15 and 20 minute poses, watercolor, working wet-on-dry]
The model for this session was an older gentleman, in great shape for a person of any age. In his youth, he must have been a handsome beast.
I always give models a little code name in my head. This guy was ‘the weary gladiator’.
I don’t know if he’s been a life-long art model – but he clearly knows how to set a pose. One of the best I’ve seen in Montreal. You occasionally see models use a wooden pole for supporting a raised arm. But not many models use posing blocks. Simple cubes of wood that let you raise a hand or foot, or brace a neck. It’s an old-school technique that really helps shape the body. In traditional ateliers you might even find block and tackle to allow hanging a model from the ceiling.
This was at UQAM at the Sunday afternoon quick pose session. It’s a good work environment, (tables, easels, benches), always with good models. If 5-20’s are your thing, I recommend checking it out. I will say, the spots by the door are back lit by the skylights at this time of year – so head to the back of the room unless you like silhouette shapes as much as I do.
Persistence: The Only Technique that Matters
I don’t usually show my ‘bad’ sketches. I often draw on loose sheets of paper, and tear up bad ones right on the spot. So there’s no evidence.
These happen to be in a sketchbook, and this was such a classic incident, I figured I’d post it for you.
Here we have what I’d consider to be a pretty average drawing. Not very structurally sound. It’s stiff. And it doesn’t even show what’s going on.
I ran into this fellow doing a lampworking demonstration at the Corning Museum of Glass. He’s probably there 9-5, five days a week, doing his thing. But I only had 20 minutes before I had to be somewhere.
I’d found him just as he ignited his jet of flame and started to melt glass. I’m a sucker for a jet of flame. I’ll watch anything on fire.
So I dive right in aaaand – – – terrible sketch right?
Despite the interesting subject – it just didn’t turn out.
We had driven two hours out of the way to see the other demo I was heading to – so, I wasn’t interested in missing that. But this drawing was really bugging me. I had already taken five steps away when I thought ‘No. Actually – I can’t live with it”.
So – turned around, did another one.
But, wouldn’t you know it!
Still a pretty weak drawing.
I’ve become a lot more demanding about capturing a likeness in recent months. It’s never going to be perfect – but this isn’t even close.
Plus – I don’t mind a messy drawing – I’m fine with a sketchy feeling. But I want open, floating lines that have some elegance. This guy looks hunched over – his shoulder is a mess.
Even though the clock was ticking, there was nothing to be done but try again.
I had to slow down, ignore the possibility of losing a good seat for the show, take my time, and really look at the guy. Find what is distinctive about him.
His shoulder length hair rolls down the back of his skull, and flips up around his neck. It’s not just a bunch of lines – it’s a flowing shape with weight. Smoothly falling, only then dissolving to brush work.
He had a bit of a heavy jaw (a little chubby – after all, he’s a desk worker like me). His goatee was very specifically trimmed. Almost a Fu Manchu mustache – not just a generic scruff of hair. A beard always follows the jaw line. It’s not pasted on – it reveals the shape of the jaw.Solving that leads me to his somewhat fleshy lips, and prominent – yet pointy – nose.
Now I have an actual person, not a generic human.
As well, the strange device spitting flame – it’s like a little cannon on spindly legs jetting blue fire. That’s a unique prop that is important to get right. Add in the glass rods and sculpted vials he’s crafting – and now I have a real description of an artist doing lampwork. A useful document of the day, not just a scribbled person.
Hope that helps you feel good about any bad drawings that happen. Use them as an opportunity. Flip the page and keep going. Getting a bit better each time. Persistence is everything in this game.
Ahoy! Pirates and Ships at the Pointe
Who doesn’t love those rascally swashbuckling pirates?
They’re the embodiment of the 99%. Romanticized history. Escaped slaves giving what-for to the Empire that shanghaied them. It’s the Robin Hood thing. With more robbing, and less giving to the poor. Unless you use the classic rationalization: ” Well, I’m poor, so I’m keeping this booty”.
I wanted to escape the winter with an afternoon of museum sketching – so poked my head into the relatively new Pirates or Privateers exhibit at the Pointe a Calliere Museum of Archaeology. I was actually there for an entirely different show, but I got distracted.
I’m about 25% through the book The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
But I digress.
This is really an exhibit for kids. There’s not a lot to see. And a great deal of imagination is required to enjoy it. If you’ve seen it, and compare your memory with these drawings, you’ll already know what I mean.
There’s a pair of wooden ship models (I can never resist drawing a model ship), a few historical costumes on manikins, (also a go-to sketching thing for me) and otherwise it’s a few flintlocks and sextants in glass cases, and a lot of cut-out graphics and interpretive signage of the dreaded ‘interactive’ variety – where the kids can push a button to hear some recorded voice acting.
The only real attraction is that the room is filled to bursting with a full size pirate ship!
As if the building was somehow built around the thing. It’s perfectly planned for kids to run around, playing pretend pirates, while parents in turn pretend their kids might be getting an education. But I can’t criticize. If you have a 5 year old, they’ll probably dig this place. It can be their reward after you drag them through the grown up exhibits.
No major art-tips to say today, other than these are in a shiny new Stillman & Birn Epsilon Series Sketchbook (8.5 x11″).
I’m also pleased to say we can now get Stillman & Birn books in Montreal. Pierre, the owner at our local shop Avenue des Arts has gone out of his way to organize Canadian distribution. He mentioned you can also get them in Edmonton at the Paint Spot (I worked there with some good friends back in art school!). Thanks to their teamwork on the import effort.
So, that’s good news. S&B have put out a few new sizes as well – I’m looking forward to trying out a nice Alpha Series 9 x 6″
Citizen Sketcher 