The Human Canvas - "Man! How Long Did THAT take?"

So here we are,
Just about at the end of this first month of this new year.

Nearing 12,000 visits to the site, and I've once again been asked how long these things take... 

...These Human Canvas sessions.

So...

...This first shot is from a trip to Istanbul. 

Untangle them, and that's Ha, with the sun on her back, and Heena, with a whirling dervish on her forearm.

Yeah, yeah - I know.

I started with a shot that gives her a bit of a moustache...

...But I REALLY wanted to show off the background. 

It was such a great spot to be doing this.

The Human Canvas sessions take place in QUITE the variety of settings. This session, with Heena, took place after hours at Arsah - an antique carpet store...and more! Seriously...if you're EVER in Istanbul...stop by. Really! You'll have some new friends! 

In the shot above, that's Huseyin, the owner, lounging in the background.

And in all fairness - here's a shot of Heena withOUT the moustache...getting ready for her piece.

But that's not why we're here.

We're here because a friend had observed photos of  canvases doing a variety of things while being drawn upon...

...Working on that perpetual doctoral dissertation...

 ...Reading... 

...Or what looked like dozing.

(((She wasn't actually dozing, by the way. In working on shots that would include both the seahorse AND the large back-piece, she had her eyes closed with her face buried in one of our favorite Mexican blankets.)))

With time to read, nap, or say, you know - work on a doctoral dissertation, the question was, "...just how long DO these things take?" Some have taken quite some time, as they were a rather organic process. Only a few of these were really planned out ahead of time.

Let's take a look at a few I remember.

Heena's whirling dervish, which I saw a very abstract image of just moments before, took only about 10 or 12 minutes...

...While this large sun on Ha, which we were sort of "discovering" as we went, took around 40 minutes.

And by "we", I mean "I".

The koi on Bree (below) took 20 minutes? Maybe 25? Hard to say. It was New Year's Eve in the middle of a bar.

It was also only the 4th koi that I had ever tried TO draw.

Marci got koi number 5 AND 6 - as part of my first large back-piece. This took a little over 2 hours, but that includes a couple of breaks...

...checking in on sleeping kids...

...intercepting a husband walking in on this...

...That sort of thing.

This next piece shown also took a couple of hours.

But that includes trying out a concept that the canvas herself had suggested...that we do a major leg-piece which STARTS on one leg and ends on the other.

Really - all I knew was that I was gonna draw some butterflies on her.

We also took several stretch breaks.

As well as time to snap some photographs. 

This IS something which really slows me down. The fact that I often serve as my own photographer. This next butterfly took maybe 7 or 8 minutes...

...while this next koi took maybe 15 minutes.

It shoulda been quicker, but this includes the time spent running around a carpet shop in the middle of Istanbul looking for a black marker.

This was explored in the Human Canvas session entitled "C'Mon! Who Leaves Their Hotel With Just One Sharpie?".

In about 6 minutes, in the middle of cleaning out the garage, I did a small landscape on my arm. A sort of prep/practice for a future session.

While talking about this, and giving a demo at work, I did another one in about 4 minutes. YOU do this at work, right? Update weather forecasts, give the news and traffic reports...draw on your arm...

...other people do this too...right?

The piece below took about 25 minutes...

...after trying out a new blending method

(about 20 minutes)...

...And later employing it to a much greater extent.

This shark took...well, longer than it shoulda. Hey! We were visiting. Hadn't seen her in 2 1/2 years.

Also, beyond the koi, all my fish before this had been pretty much made up. A "being of some sort" which incorporated eyes, mouth, fins and a tail to become something...fishy.

Adding a background didn't make it go much quicker...

...But really didn't take TOO long.

Discovering yet another blending technique,

some pieces have gone REALLY quickly.

This seahorse...4 or 5 minutes...

...While this blending demo, which became a bonus piece for the evening, took MAYBE a minute.

With this same blending technique, as well as a canvas provided photo (thank you Shaelyn), koi have become quicker...and better.

But when you stick it into something more complex...

...Well, that slows THAT right back down.

So...some repeat images ARE getting quicker.

The PROBLEM is, I hardly, truly, repeat images. With both a photographer and videographer on board, some of this will go MUCH quicker. I'm currently working on seeing just what kind of pieces I CAN do quick enough for, say, a paid session.

Speed, however, is not the point of these exercises, and  I can't stop trying to accomplish something new...somehow.

Of course the question wasn't how fast these go, but rather how long they take. Sarina, the latest person to ask this of me, is a friend from my theatre time, and provided me with the wonderful quote which heads this page. It's this quote that finally just started to make some sense out of what I'm doing.

She also tends to re-post some of these more current adventures - which I GREATLY appreciate. Any individual blog entry CAN be shared on facebook, twitter, or several other media. As I only do facebook, I ALWAYS appreciate you letting someone else know about this. I can't.

More soon.