Crancking up Abstraction

In this drawing I wanted to employ as much abstraction as as possible without losing the essence of the nude female body. The last drawing ‘Nude 09-09-15’ already was heavily abstracted but parts like fingers and hair locks were rendered very figurative. This time I wanted to see if I could pull it off to come up with a general level of abstraction. However, a certain degree of recognition I still would like to maintain, also with regard to atmospheric depth.

Origin of the Motif

Years ago I saw an old picture of great looking female nude that climbed her way onto a dune. There was this great division of light and darkness through a series of cast shadows on the sand. Next to this the upper part of the body lacked any delineation with the surrounding sand. That is why I put the stress on a heavy tonal contrast while keeping the body open in the upper part, communicating with the negative space above.

Crawling

Her crawling and squatting moves I enforced by drawing two vertical curves running alongside her buttocks and calf. This way a certain movement is achieved by that and those curves underlign the overall diagonal placement of the body, creating dynamics. However, I think not everybody will see her instantly, even though the anatomy is right.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel, 0.5 mm) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) (A4-format)

Artist: Corné Akkers

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