First day back in the studio today. A ton of work to do, loads of new collaborative projects to occupy me, but all I could think about when I arrived was the odd position assumed by the little mannequin figure on my desk.
What on earth was the point of this figure, I wondered? Bought years ago, I couldn’t recall using it ever. I drew it in various poses, and then googled artists’ mannequins, and found it’s called a lay figure and was used for drapery set-ups in the days before apps. Or photography.
Thanks to the great Gurney Journey blog (a must for anyone interested in imaginative figurative painting) I remembered I had in fact only read about artists’ lay figures a week ago.
Since I’m about to embark on some doll/puppet making, maybe I’ll play around a bit now with the whole drapery thing and take myself back down the painter’s historical timeline.
A worthwhile messing around today, in other words.