Another Try

Another attempt to capture the essence of American pin-up and model Bettie Page. Last time I did so was through my graphite pencil drawing ‘Bettie Page – 01-09-17 (sold)’. I liked the process of abstraction plains and connecting them to the negative space around them. Somebody must have catched my drift because I sold it to an american collector. This drawing is an attempt to emulate this succes but turned to a slightly different execution altogether. Those are the fun moments in the life of an artist.

Tamara Revisited

The photo showed Bettie against a dark background. For some reason it reminded me more to studio photography from the 1930s, almost art deco-like. Given a lot of previous drawings I like this chiaroscuro violence a lot and one thing led to another. Enter Tamara de Lempicka again. Sometimes it almost seems impossible to escape her influence but what the heck? She always sets a good example. My Contemporaries can learn a thing or two from her. What I am talking about here are abstracted conical shapes with soft tonal gradients. Not to mention the smashing tonal diction in general.

Deviation

I liked the refence picture letting her bodyscape and hair melt into the negative space tonally. The challenge was to get her body and face recognizable and still be able to abstract her into basic geometric forms according to my principles of roundism and singularity. In this respect I think I went further than Tamara’s bodily abstractions though. In mine there are also some rectangles, cubes and other straight lined shapes. All-in all it turned into a drawing surpassing my expectations. Of course they always do or should. After all, that what making art is all about in the end. Wouldn’t you agree?

Click here to read about the sale of a print of this artwork through saatchiart.com.

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

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com