B.A.M.G. Drawing Marathon

[John Zeissig]

Last Sunday I attended the Bay Area Models' Guild's Drawing Marathon. This was an event that ran from 10:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., in which 15 or so models were posing on four seperate stages at any given time. The stages were classified according to length of pose, with a stage for 1 & 2 min. poses, one for 5 & 10 min. poses, one for 20 min. poses, and one for 3 hr. poses.

When I got there just before 10:00, the place was already a madhouse. There must have been 150 artists there, and the room was so packed that you could hardly walk in. The only stage that I could get close enough to even contemplate drawing was the one for the three hour poses. At that, I was 20' away and had to hold my 22" x 28" clipboard in one hand! Luckily, I was able to commandeer a chair by the time the pose began.

In the 3 hr. poses the models take a break every 20 min. In the jpeg below the top row is from the first three sessions of that pose by the same model. In the first session she was clearly uncomfortable because there was a large dual-element halogen light placed low in front of the stage that was shining up into her face. By the end of the first 20 min. she was sweating, so the light was moved back. The drawing in the top left corner below was done during that session. The light was still horrible for portrait work, but since I was the only one who seemed to be doing that I didn't want to complain. I used that first break to edge up closer.

The drawing in the middle of the top row was done in the second session, when she started to relax a bit. I think she noticed that I was concentrating on her face and she started to respond to that. During the second break she stopped by and looked at what I'd been doing. Before the third session started there a general consensus that the big halogen light should be done away with entirely, so it was extinguished.

The drawing on the right of the top row was from the third session, when she definitely knew what I was doing. She was keeping her expression pretty constant and looking directly at me. I wish I could have done a better job on this one. It's probably better than it looks here, but I was disappointed at my start, and went on to do a 3/4 length figure drawing which has bee cropped off in this scan.I thought that these three made an interesting sequence though.

The rest of the drawings are from the afternoon, and are all from 5, 10 & 20 min. poses. I managed to squeeze in to the shorter pose stages, but I was pretty far back. They give the flavor of the great variety of models and poses during the day. Some of them have been cropped or had clothing drawn on after the fact to make them acceptable for the forum. I got a total of 13 drawings done. All in all a great day, with a lot of interesting things happening!

[Lon Haverly]

What a fine idea and a fun experience! I understand the difficulty, however, in getting into a scenario where you have no control of distance, lighting, or position. Kinda like courtroom drawing for me. I do it for the money, however. I would not willingly get involved where there is so much chaos. Courtroom drawing is my absolute worst work, and at the same time, ironically, the highest paying work. (Pastel, of course.)

But when you have to work from such a distance, 20 feet, it is really very difficult. I congratulate you!

I really think you are having a good time drawing! When you get to have some models that are at your control, with your own lighting and at a reasonable distance, you will really appreciate it!