tachisme: Old figure sketches

a very early still life exercise

I was sorting through my old art files when i came across my figure drawings from some years back. They are mostly speed sketches (quick tonal studies, fast gestural drawings, a few contour drawings) drawn from life in assorted art classes and using assorted professional models.

I have put an exercise from 10 years ago, when i was starting out, at the very top so that those who include tachisme among their blogs visited directory will not have a boobs 'n tummies icon on their home page, lolz. No joke actually. Flickr (where i was just going to dump these drawings) wouldn't upload the nudes! Or else they would have changed my family friendly rating! So, this blog post instead.

Since my latest painting is almost (but not quite) finished - not yet ready to show - and since it might be handy for me to have a record in this blog of how my drawing has developed over time, i thought i'd pop a whole bunch of oldies here, just for the record.

And also this post is a follow-up from Brett's Ghost in the dark last time. The terror of blank page. The aversion to being judged. I figure whacking out a lot of learner's stuff, warts and all, will simply swamp any possibility of contriving an 'arty' image. It's what psychologists call 'flooding' when treating phobias.

I'll follow up with some old portrait attempts in another post soon, just to finish my 'treatment'. Then all my amateurism will be out in public and i can just get on with muddling through into the future in my own flawed way.

UPDATE: Have just returned from the theatre. During the play my mind wandered. The thought hit that, like Flickr, Blogspot may want to change my status from family-friendly too. They may insert one of those Adult Content warnings when visitors first try to enter my blog. So i think i had best take down any image containing representations of breasts over the next few days. I'll replace each of them with links to my Pinterest account where i can post these harmless sketches with impunity. Sigh.