Hatched Strokes

This pastel drawing ‘Model session – 18-04-26 – 2’ is the second of today’s life drawing event. This time the model is captured in rather impressionist hatched strokes. The first session here in municipal center ‘De Blauwe Tram’ was jolly good fun. Expressionist of nature but for the second one I had a totally different approach in mind. However, not unfamiliar because that approach would be my hatched strokes style I developed throughout more than 4 decades now. Even though my cubist revolution started more than 15 years ago, I never stopped using this style. Especially for landscapes I find it to be the most suitable style I can employ to capture light.

Using Color

Using color in this style can be very prolific yet difficult to master. You see, it all boils down to match tones in different colored strokes. Otherwise, the image would turn out to become a single blurry rubble pile. Well, see if I could pull it off within one session. The short answer is yes. 10-15 years ago, when I held model sessions at Brugman Art, I used this technique in color frequently as well. See how I would do nowadays. After one hour I wasn’t unsatisfied. The anatomy wasn’t too bad, and the strokes appeared to be placed in orderly tonal fashion.

Don’t Kill Your Darlings

Back in my studio I wasn’t planning for unnecessary improvements initially. They can turn out to become disasterous That’s because you tend to kill your expressive darlings. They are born out of a creative force only to be evoked by life drawing sessions. After all, what could be more perfect than a ‘close system’. By that I mean a great interaction with the model and a perfect result with a rough edge. Such take place in an ideal world and in fact, I have made life pastels in the past (alla-prima). I even sold a couple of them.

Improvements

This having said, this time I thought of improving the background a bit. The model is standing straight up and the bar stool, however charming as a prop, is thin and vertical too. Consequently, I felt compelled to sketch a bit of a floor and walls. Otherwise, the negative space (already occupying more than 50%) would have become too vague and meaningless. All in all, I see now the slight indication of the tiles on the floor was badly needed. It also puts the model in the right perspective.

Pastel drawing on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper (47 x 63 x 0.1 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com

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