Recently I attended an 'art workout' at the
Art Students League of New York. Our superb model was
Emma Shapiro, a professional figure model and herself an artist. The teacher was
James L. McElhinney. As Emma gave us 30 second and minute poses, moving her body through space, James instructed us to find movement in fast gestural marks on each page using vine charcoal. We had to use our strongest hand and weakest hand, face away from the model and draw from memory as we tried to find the movement, energy, twist and turns from
within the figure. It's a different way of seeing.
Towards the end of the evening with wine and pizza as fuel, we worked together on on a huge piece of paper on the floor as Emma continuously moved between us making marks herself. Individual drawings linked up, worked over, smudged together to became one large collaborative composition. It was a truly inspiring evening. Here are a few of my gestures that I adapted to color afterwards. I like the pictures I took of Emma stained with charcoal on the collaborative piece.
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I'm not sure which gestures I did with my right hand or left hand or from memory!
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| Emma Shapiro in one of her beautiful poses |
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| Emma Shapiro |
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| Finding the movement in 30 seconds |
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| Model Emma Shapiro and students continuously moving and drawing |
