My days at the CIVA conference were a banquet at an overflowing table.

The first day was a figure drawing workshop with Ed Knippers.  One female model in the morning, a male model in the afternoon.  During breaks, I asked each about their experiences as professional models.  This act kept me from objectifying the people belonging to the strong and beautiful bodies I’d been studying so closely.

Our instructor spent time emphasizing the emotional impact of placing the figure into the picture plane.  You know- distant and small, in a corner, means one thing, and large, perhaps overflowing the picture boundaries, means quite another.

Here are a few snapshots of the day:

 Easels stand at attention, waiting

Pile of pictures

Dark figure

At day’s end, I was the drawn figure, drawn and weary.  Not used to sitting on a hard bench for hours on end