30 minutes
ballpoint pen


20 minutes

My former professor, James McMullan, used to wax poetic about capturing the tensions and pressures in the muscle during a pose. In this pose, I think I found it mostly in the twisting and stretching of her abdomen and the flattening of the fat of her thighs. It's nice to apply his advice again after nearly three years now.

( +2 under the cut )

The model was very pretty (e_apollo said she's half-Afghani, half-German) and at least attempted ambitious short poses, but she kept getting tired and letting her arms drop halfway through and her long poses were too similar to each other. Ah well.

Afterwards, e_apollo, Duane, and I headed over to Park Slope for Japanese tapas (♥) and the best chocolate cake in NYC. Yum.

I'm leaving for home in a few hours. :) Be back in NYC by January 2nd for more fun and mayhem.

e_apollo

30 minute pose, ballpoint pen

Digital photograph, because I lack the desire to scan in my huge 18x24 drawing pad.

When I was a child, I would sit in the dining room of my parents' restaurant drawing landscapes of castles, princesses, and graveyards in a BiC ballpoint pen on the back side of the paper placemats that had Chinese Zodiac sign descriptions on the front.

Occasionally Mom and Dad would complain about how much paper I went through in a day, but I would go on my merry way. Sometimes a waitress or customer would come over and critique my work, and recommend I use pencil instead of pen.

I'm rediscovering why I rebelled against the pencil, hah.

Among many reasons, it forces me to look and learn from my mistakes instead of quickly erasing it and denying it existed. (Which, I think, is a good skill to have for life in general.)

yunyu

e_apollo

Michael in ballpoint pen

I suppose it's about time I updated my art, even if it's slight.