Strike a Pose

Some time ago my mother Marijke Akkers-Kersten and I visited the Mauritshuis at The Hague, Netherlands. The reason? To show the neighbor’s girl around all the goodies of Vermeer and Rembrandt. She was looking out the window to the Prime Minister’s tower (‘t Torentje) of Mark Rutte. Immediatey I recognized the quality of the light resembling Vermeer’s oil paintings. So I took a picture catching her off-guard. The same I did with my dad when I took my parents for a stroll in Park Voorlinden. I drew his posture and it became my graphite pencil drawing ‘Henk Akkers – 15-02-17’. I like these unforced sceneries the best. They present a glimpse of how people actually are without trying to strike a pose. Wouldn’t you agree?

Geometrics

When I put myself to the actual drawing it was not hard to discover some great compositary features. These I could work with very well, such as the diagonal lines of attention. They run from the upper left corner to the lower right one. These are the iron fence on the other side of the canal and the window rebates. Even my mom’s glasses frame runs to the upper left corner. These diagonals give something dynamic to the quite, contemplative look she seems to have. It almost is as if it reflects her wonder of it all. My roundism style did the rest. Furthermore I threw in some rectangles, put in horizontally and vertically aligned. To top it off I also introduced some circular patterns. This way there is a perfect balance between all essential geometric structures. There you have it: my mother caught in triangles, rectangles and circles.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Lana Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) – A4 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers