18 x 24 pastel pencil on toned paper
Same delightful model and challenging pose last night as the previous week. Decided to take a slightly different position and perspective; focus on the face and torso.
After the first break, Yuri came by and liked my start. “Don’t just draw what you see, though. Decide on your emphasis. Invite the viewer in with something interesting and lead the eyes around the drawing with thoughtful lines. Don’t press so hard on the pencil.”
He talked with me again about line quality. Took my pencil and demonstrated how to achieve line rhythm with slight weight and pressure changes. He has shown me this many times; I am a slow learner.
Toward the end of the session, Ray Heinz asked me how it was going. “I’m on a rescue mission, Ray” I said with a laugh.
Struggled with the face and you can see the battle lines. Her face was slightly elevated and the jaw line, chin and neck were challenging. Needed to put some emotion in the eyes; the blank stare is a fail.
Think the hair highlights work and convey volume and the hair in shadow above the shoulder attracts the eye to the head.
My intention was for the torso to co-star with the face, but it is flat and lifeless and subordinate. Just spent too much time on the head and needed to create more focus on the calf, thigh and hip with line weight; needed to better model the thigh, abdomen and breasts to show suppleness. It would have balanced the attention between the head and torso. Ran out of time.
Will get to draw this model in a new pose next week.
2 hours.
Progress not perfection.
Tom Donovan Art Blog 