Neil is a boy I've been dating who, sadly, lives in New York, and so I see him very rarely. But he is visiting me for a week, and my happiness knows no bounds. We planned to spend the first two days as tourists about town, but instead spent them in bed, and to my mind, much more agreeably. But he lives Wednesday, and since I don't know when I will see him again, I've decided to spend the next few days in drawing him every day, to make as many drawings, and memories, of him as possible. This drawing might not be for sale (in fact, I think that I will sell very few of the drawings I do of him, but I haven't decided yet), but in the spirit of generosity, I thought I would share some with you. Below follows a description of an Academy of Neil (who is a dancer, and one of the best models I have ever drawn), along with some photos.

Above is a photo taken at the end of todays session, with Neil checking out his drawing. The process continues below.

Above is the drawing as it appeared at around 20 minutes. At this point the drawing is in an exploratory stage, in which I am feeling out the figure and its placement on the page, with a soft vine charcoal, which is easy to erase.

Here you can see the drawing at about 40 minutes, with Neil in the pose in the background. I am feeling out he light and dark areas, and deciding on the general composition. I often lay in a dark ground near the area of the legs in order to minimize contrast and keep the focus on the chest and torso. I also decided that the right side of his body, which is the most strongly lit, needs a dark background in order to provide a sharp contrast.

At this point the head is largely finished. I usually draw the head first, and use it as a measurement tool for the rest of the drawing - I measure the head, and relate it to the body (for example, it is one head lenth down to the nipples, and another to the belly button.) I have also laid in the dark side with a stick of charcoal, and started to get a feel for the light and dark sides.

Immidiatly after laying in the dark side with charcoal, I take a rag and wipe it all out. This creates a general, smooth tone for the mid-value tones. I then take an eraser and use it to create the mid tones, with renewed applications of charcoal for the shadows and white conte for the lights to strengthen the form.

Here is the drawing as it appeared near the end of the day, with carefull build up of the lights on the light side of his body.

And here, above, is the unfinished drawing at the end of a six hour day. The torso and head are largely done, but the legs and arms remain to be worked out. I laid them out towards the end so that I would have a general idea of where to go when I continue on the pose tomorrow.

Here is Neil checking out the drawing at the end of the day.

I included these two drawings simply because he is so cute, and I thought you might enjoy them. Check back soon - I will be photographing and drawing Neil non-stop through Wednesday,

 

Felix