In Between the Showy Stuff

It is one of those weeks where the work in the studio goes slowly and, while progress is great, there isn't a lot yet to show for it. I am slowly getting the details on my grisaille refined before moving into color. I have also started getting an hour of gesture sketching in everyday. It isn't quite a habit yet as I haven't been doing it long enough but I hope to make it one.
Before you ask, I am not using a live model. I am using poses from Pose Space. I figure for gesture sketching a live model isn't quite as crucial. I have purchased about five poses plus two additional free poses which I put in into an iPhoto album. I then set it to a random slide show full screen. Each pose has photos taken from several angles, for example one pose has 28 pictures giving 28 different views of the same pose. This makes for a lot of random photos for the slide show. I can set the time to 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc. I get a good range of gestures this way. So far it seems to work fine.
There is a life drawing session here in town which I attend but, while I am grateful for the opportunity to have inexpensive access to a live model, it has its drawbacks. Most of the artist, all but one in fact, are not interested in doing gesture sketches. They don't see the value in them so we often only spend the first ten minutes doing gesture sketches. However, I understand why people want to get to the longer poses. I guess I just got used to the way things were when I was in school. So, I do my own gesture sketching. One of these days, I will to be able to hire my own models to work with!
In the meantime, here is the second still life set up:

This is a fun set up for me. After a storm, there is often a lot of stuff washed up on the beach. These floats pop up now and then. I have been able to find a few since we have been here. I picked the most colorful ones that I have and put them in what is hopefully a somewhat simple set up.
All around town people hang these found floats in their yards. I love looking at all the colors and hope I can find a few more on the beach in my favorite colorways.
I am not sure how long it will take until the grisaille is ready for the next major step but will publish the progress made in the next post. I haven't started on the above set up but when I need to wait for paint to dry on the first one or need a break from it, I will.
A final note, in school we used a wonderful charcoal from France called Nitram Fusians. The man who made the charcoal retired and it has no longer been available for a time. There is good news though, A Canadian man bought the business and equipment and is now manufacturing the charcoal again. The drawing charcoal was wonderful to use. I have just ordered some of the new charcoal and hope that it is indeed up to the previous standard. It is not cheap but after having to use other charcoal on the market and even made my own, it will be worth it. I should have a review of the new charcoal when it comes. In the meantime the charcoal can be found at Nitram Charcoal.
That is it for this week. Hope everyone stays warm and dry!
-Renee