Poets Series: at WordStage

While I wait for the sun to come back for photographing the rest of the paintings in my upcoming show at Q Space - which is next week, yikes - here's a little pencil sketch of Luciano while he was reading his gambolling poems last night (they are very strong poems). Really I should give up drawing at poetry readings - getting a likeness is awfully hard given that your subject is behind a microphone and often a podium and is certainly not still.

This little sketch was mostly drawn without looking at the paper. Though I did look at the paper while I was putting the dashes in to indicate the design on his shirt (which was actually black with gold slashes, but pencil and in ten minutes...)

Luciano Iacobelli @Toronto WordStage @Q Space 8 May 2013, Brenda Clews, 11" x 8.5", graphite on 130lb paper. He's younger and much better looking than my sketch, mostly drawn without looking at the paper, but I do recognize him, there is a strange resemblance to this man.

___

 

Poets Series: Brandon Pitts @ Lizzie Violet's Cabaret Noir

Beginning to think that plain pencil works best for these short sketches of poets that I find myself doing - I now take art supplies since even though I think I'd like to sit and enjoy the readings with a glass of wine, I always end up grabbing a pencil or pen because something interesting happens, a costumed reader, or the challenge of drawing a performing poet like Brandon Pitts... This is the 3rd time I've tried to draw him... and I wasn't going to. I only had my writing Moleskine notebook with me, determined to either write or simply listen. Ha! Let's start with that shape of head and shoulder (which I didn't get - after I'd finished his face and came back to the particular slope of suited shoulder, he'd finished and had sat down). He has a very distinctive face, especially his dark eyes, and yet his features are, well, he is good looking, nothing too accentuated that would make it easier to offer enough of a 'recognizable' visual notation for someone to say, 'Yeah, that's Brandon.' I never take reference photos, btw. Never. What you see is what you get, and if I tinker later, it's from memory. Anyhow... sharing Sunday night's sketch. Brandon Pitts at Lizzie Violet's Cabaret Noir at Q Space in Toronto on 14 Apr 2013. 6" x 7", graphite, Moleskine notebook.



___

 

Poets Series: Two Musicians at Portobello

Two Musicians at Linda Stitt's poetry and music afternoon at Portobello Restaurant in Toronto on April 13, 2013. 8.5" x 11", graphite and conte on 130% archival art paper.

___

 

Poets Series: Rishma Dunlop @ The Art Bar

Rishma Dunlop, a poetry reading sketch at the Art Bar at Q Space on April 2, 2013. 4" x 6", Aquarelle graphite on 130lb archival art paper. This drawing was done with a water-soluble 6B pencil, and so can be wetted and then it will change, and may lose the likeness here, so I thought to post the original sketch before seeing what a wet paintbrush produces.

(Unfortunately, once again, I forgot my 'distance/close-up' glasses, and so she was fuzzy in the distance and likely the likeness is too. Lol.)

Rishma was on my thesis committee for a thesis I didn't finish at York U about a decade ago. She's a fabulous poet, essayist, literary editor and teacher. I bought her book, 'Lover Through Departure,' and look forward to reading the poems. It was wonderful to see her again.

___

 

Poets Series: Joani Paige @ HOWL

Joani Paige at Nik Beat's HOWL at Q Space on March 24, 2013. A little sketch that I turned into an ink painting. 8.5" x 11", graphite, India and acrylic permanent inks on 130lb archival art paper.

(Was trying to recall how I did my ink paintings last year...). Original pencil sketch here, and a video of Joani singing that I did in 2011.
 ___

 

Poets Series: Gabrielle at HOWL

Charcoal sketch of Gabrielle B. [it is nigh impossible to find images of her on the NET, and she's a published author, and so I think that is a deliberate choice, and therefore naming her is not, I suspect, apropos] at Nik Beat's HOWL at Q Space on March 24th, 2013. To the left, the untouched original sketch done there, and, to the right, finished in various colours of conte. I had to rely entirely on memory for the colour, which perhaps I oughtn't to have done since to my eye the finished drawing loses the spontaneity of the sketch, but I wanted to attempt the rich skin tones. 8.5" x 11", 130lb archival art paper.

___

 

Poets Series: Joani Paige at HOWL

Joani Paige at Nik Beat's HOWL at Q Space on March 24, 2013. A little sketch that I haven't touched, only photographed. There was a mic in front of her the whole time, and, since I didn't want to draw it, I had to imagine where it hid her beautiful face. Lol. Joani was wonderful, and it was wonderful to re-connect with her!

I once did a video of her, a few years back. She told me last Sunday that she had only recently watched the whole video, that she finds it really hard to watch videos of herself performing, and that she really liked what I did! Wild how it works, huh.


Joani Paige, singing "So Fine," with Willie Anicic on harmonica near the end, and Pat Kelly on percussion (not in camera range) at Free Times Cafe on September 16, 2011.

___

 

Poets Series: Cabaret Noir in March 2013

Jean-Paul Mullet at Lizzie Violet's 'Cabaret Noir' on 10 MAR 2013, 11" x 8.5", Pentalic archival 25% cotton 130lb paper.

A charcoal and conte sketch, untouched. He's not as scary as he looks here - Jean-Paul, after all, is a vegan zombie clown! A great costume and make-up, and the sort of strange and funny performance you'd be inclined to expect from a hobbit-like zombie clown with moss growing on his cheeks and forehead. Also he was born and died maybe 2 centuries ago.

___

 

Poets Series: HOWL in February 2013

Poet Alana P. Cook @ HOWL @ Q Space in Toronto on 24 Feb 2013. 8.5" x 11", Staedtler marsgraphic brush pens, 80lb archival paper. The drawing taken in sunlight, and the colours are accurate; the detail was taken indoors with cloudy light from a window and a daylight bulb shining on it. (You can see the full spectrum of colours is more evident in the photo taken in direct sun, including the colour of the paper.)

Meghan Morrison performing @ HOWL @ Q Space in Toronto on 24 Feb 2013. 8.5" x 11", Staedtler marsgraphic and Prismacolor premier brush pens, 80lb archival paper. My focus was on her hand, such an exquisite, delicate, graceful hand plucking the strings as she sang in her exquisite, beautiful voice... and then I added a blue background.

And I might as well include this already posted sketch in this post. I probably will work on it a little more sometime this week.

...my *untouched* drawing of the performance poet, Liz Worth. I had put my art supplies away, when Liz ripped off her top and proceeded to spread blood over her belly, neck, chin, her hands covered, an organ, viscera in one hand, so out charcoal and red chaulk paper came, and I drew as fast as I could. You don't get a sense of Liz's physical beauty here (she's a knockout), but perhaps some of the strangeness and deep power of her unexpected performance.

 ___

 

Poets Series: At HOWL's February event

...my *untouched* drawing.

I had put my art supplies away, when Liz ripped off her top and proceeded to spread blood over her belly, neck, chin, her hands covered, an organ, viscera in one hand, so out charcoal and red chalk and paper came, and I drew as fast as I could. You don't get a sense of Liz's physical beauty here (she's a knockout), but perhaps some of the strangeness and deep power of her unexpected performance.

(It is taking discipline to refrain from spending an hour or two working on this drawing but I have other work that isn't getting done. So far, other than the dozen photos shot in daylight to find one approximating the original and the photoshopping to get it closer to the real image, I have managed to leave the original sketch as is. This drawing is testing that resolve though and greatly.)




I don't take reference photos but here is Nik Beat's photo of the incredible, disturbing, powerful, vulnerable, deeply emotional performance last night at HOWL Q Space by Liz Worth, a very talented Toronto poet.

___

 

Ok, some more poets, but the same night

Two Poets on 3 Minute Open Mic Readings at Hot Sauced Words, a poetry event, 21 Feb 2013, charcoal, conte crayon, 80lb archival paper.

Ok, I said I wouldn't. But it's the same night, and I haven't worked on it. These two gents are 3 min poses on Open Mic at Hot Sauced Words. They remind me of Estragon and Vladimir in Becket's Waiting for Godot: ESTRAGON: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You're sure it was here? VLADIMIR: What? ESTRAGON: That we were to wait.

The real poets behind their 3 minute sketches were wonderful, and not Godotian at all.

___

 

Poets Reading Poetry Series Drawing to an End

Cynthia Gould and Matthew Tierney reading at Toronto WordStage on Wed Feb 13, 2013. 9" x 12", mixed media on Strathmore drawing paper.

I think these will be my last 'poet drawings.' The poses aren't very interesting, the angle at which I sit and the lighting is usually not ideal, there's always a microphone in front of the face, and there isn't enough time to properly draw anyone (and I do not take reference photos, for the record). But the real problem is the amount of time I spend 'finishing' these little drawings. I only consider them exercises, like doing scales, a way to practice drawing, and find that working on them is keeping me from working on my own drawings and paintings. So I am considering sketching sometimes at poetry readings and rarely showing these 'exercises.' While a couple of the women, Cynthia included (she is the first image above) have liked their drawings and posted them publicly, most of the poets I draw say nothing and I'm not sure I'd be happy about uncommissioned drawings of myself either (even if I usually don't name the writer, it's usually pretty clear since I include the date and the venue).

___

 

Poets Series: Art Bar, Jan 29th

Sketches of featured poets reading at the Art Bar Tuesday night at Q Space in Toronto. One likely done; the other I may tinker with. A new style seems to be emerging for these 'Poets Series.'


    

The first one, The Poet Is Loose, and the second one, Cryptic Readings, 2013, are both 9"x 12", 22.9cm x 30.5cm, mixed media on 80lb archival Strathmore drawing paper.

___