Four artists, one model and a morning of drawing at the ASOC Spring Exhibition.
On Saturday morning, I set up my iPad at the Fitters Workshop in Canberra to demonstrate digital drawing as part of the Artists Society of Canberra's Spring Exhibition.
Michael joined me, along with Erin, another ASOC member, and Gleb, the young son of our model, Tori.
Tori was wonderful. Dressed in a pale blue spotted dress, with flowers in her hair, red lipstick and fabulous lace-up boots, she looked as though she'd stepped out of another era.
And she knew how to pose!
5, 10, 30
We followed the traditional life-drawing approach, beginning with a 5-minute pose, moving to 10 minutes and finishing with 30.
Five minutes is barely enough time to think. You have to look, make decisions and get drawing. There's no opportunity to fuss over details.
Ten minutes gives you a little more breathing space.
And 30 minutes allows the drawing to develop into something more considered.
I began with a quick black line drawing, then experimented with a different pose and a limited palette of pale blue, pink and black.
Same model, different eyes
What I particularly enjoyed was seeing how differently we interpreted Tori.
We were all looking at the same person, working through the same poses, but our drawings were wonderfully different.
Some were delicate and observational. Others were bolder, more graphic and colourful.
And that's one of the great pleasures of drawing with other artists. You get to see not only what they're looking at, but how they're seeing it.
From top left clockwise: Bobby (iPad); Gleb (pencil); Michael (iPad); Erin (pencil)
And those boots!
For the final thirty-minute pose, Tori sat with one arm draped over the back of a chair.
I worked up a colourful digital portrait, adding her spotted dress, floral headpiece and the chair against a dark background.
I finished about five minutes early.
So I drew her boots.
They were far too good to ignore.
Drawing is drawing
At the end of the session, I invited the ASOC exhibition volunteers over to see what we'd been doing.
There were pencil drawings and digital drawings, each with its own character.
For me, the pleasure of drawing on an iPad isn't about replacing traditional materials. It's about having another way to make marks, explore colour and respond to what I see.
The same principles apply whether you're holding a pencil or an Apple Pencil: look carefully, make a mark, look again.
And sometimes, when you have 5 minutes to spare, draw the boots.
Bobby Graham is a Canberra artist, illustrator and digital art educator. She shares her creative practice, exhibitions and experiments at Slow Art
