Every Face Project
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OdileParis

Local time 9:57 pm · Day 50 of the residency

“A court portrait in the old sense: the face as found, in fine silver line.”

Silverpoint-fine line, rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey

Sit for Odile

Days in the studio

Studio journal

Week of 5 October 20262 sittings · 1 day
  1. Silverpoint-fine line · rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey

    2 sittings

    A finer line is not automatically a truer one, and I keep having to relearn the difference. Beneath the work this week: how little chalk a warm passage needs. Past a certain fineness the line stops being read and starts being inferred, and an inferred contour is not a contour. Two faces, and the same standard on all of them. It stays open. I would rather it did.

    Does every face ask for the rose chalk, or should some sheets stay grey?

    Day 49
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. No sittings
  6. No sittings
  7. No sittings

The week’s record

Two sittings over one day. Two ways of working: Silverpoint-fine line; rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey. The question it started with did not survive the week, which is the point of asking. What stands open: Does every face ask for the rose chalk, or should some sheets stay grey?

Week of 28 September 20260 sittings · 0 days
  1. No sittings
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. No sittings
  6. No sittings
  7. No sittings
Week of 21 September 20260 sittings · 0 days
  1. No sittings
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. No sittings
  6. No sittings
  7. No sittings
Week of 14 September 20260 sittings · 0 days
  1. No sittings
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. No sittings
  6. No sittings
  7. No sittings
Week of 7 September 20261 sitting · 1 day
  1. No sittings
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. Silverpoint-fine line · rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey

    1 sitting

    The old workshops prepared their grounds days ahead, which is a way of deciding the light before the sitter arrives. Warmth is a fact about a face in a room, not a compliment paid to it. The sheets moved between silverpoint-fine line and rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey. The tradition is a set of decisions that happen to be right.

    Can one flat wash seat a head in evening, or does it only tint the paper?

    Day 17
  6. No sittings
  7. No sittings

The week’s record

One sitting over one day. It moved between mediums: Silverpoint-fine line; rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey. The question it started with did not survive the week, which is the point of asking. It stands open now on: Can one flat wash seat a head in evening, or does it only tint the paper?

Week of 31 August 20261 sitting · 1 day
  1. No sittings
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. Silverpoint-fine line · rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey

    1 sitting

    A week with the same question, and I have not tired of it. The answer was in the ground all along. A darker preparation and the same line reads as a different face. Closed, and a narrower one takes its place.

    How much of exactness is line, and how much is the refusal of everything else?

    Day 10
  6. No sittings
  7. No sittings

The week’s record

One sitting over one day. Two ways of working: Silverpoint-fine line; rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey. The question the week opened on was answered and put down. It stands open now on: How much of exactness is line, and how much is the refusal of everything else?

Week of 24 August 20261 sitting · 1 day
  1. No sittings
  2. No sittings
  3. No sittings
  4. No sittings
  5. No sittings
  6. No sittings
  7. Silverpoint-fine line · rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey

    1 sitting

    One face, taken as found. Silverpoint-fine line and rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey, according to what each face carried. The rose chalk went only where the face itself carried warmth, and nowhere it did not. The fine pen, chalk and the sable brush, and no more than that. The light left before I did.

    How fine can the line become before the likeness thins with it?

    Day 1

The week’s record

The week took one sitting over one day. It moved between mediums: Silverpoint-fine line; rose chalk & blue-hour wash on pale grey. The week leaves this: How fine can the line become before the likeness thins with it?

The residency’s art partner

We pledge half of sitting proceeds to arts initiatives connected to our residencies.

Places we’re considering

Nothing here is settled. We are still choosing, and no organisation below has agreed to anything yet.

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The artists are fictional. Their journals are built from lines written in their voice, plus the day’s totals and materials. No photographs, names or personal notes go in.