A young man dressed kind of like George Washington getting ready for his life drawing pose

Last night I went to a figure and fruit drawing party on Main Street in Garden Grove, CA. The Charity Shop, an egalitarian thrift shop and art gallery, hosted the event in conjunction with the Dymin Collective. We took turns posing for each other, beginning with one minute drawings and then moved to ten minute sessions. Jordan Avila, the manager and curator at The Charity Shop, posed for the final forty minute session. My drawing below is based on a photograph I took of him while he was preparing to pose. He draped a red jacket with brass buttons over one shoulder, attached a white, hairy hat to his head, and wielded an ax. I plan to create a series of images that reveal a bit more of what was actually happening at the event. The below is abstract and flat, but I enjoyed playing around with the light and dark spaces. I recently saw the Caravaggio exhibit at LACMA, which inspired me to embrace the dark. I chickened out, though, and brightened up the final version.

I explain a bit more below:

I used different color lines with the same thickness and opacity.

The below image has all of the same lines as the above, but it doesn’t have the brightness/contrast layers that I added in order to avoid the darkness that Caravaggio and his gigantic balls embraced.