All of a Sudden, Darja Again!

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Darja Collin – 2026-05-19’ is study after combing soft and harsh contour delineations. Linear and soft gradients combined. Short of two years ago since I made a drawing of her and I wasn’t planning for a new one. Then, on a Sunday morning I happen to hear a radio broad about her. Surely that caught my attention. Browsing through the VPRO radio & t.v. guide I found the announcement of that broadcast. It was adorned by a beautiful foto of her I didn’t know yet. Photographs of her are scarce and this one enchanted me right away. The resolution was newspaper quality and therefor horrible. However, the pose was beautiful. She carries this light sphere on her shoulder. Upon my word, this woman can carry a pose. You can tell she knows, from the viewer’s perspective, how she looks. The right characteristic of a true model!

Doubts Creeping in

I look for a better copy which I found on Pinterest. Then doubts started to creep in. The gigantic bow around her neck I found particularly bothersome. Next to this, the lighting wasn’t that great. A bit boring and her eyes seemed to be closed. Then an idea came to me to have the sphere be the main source of light. Such turned out to become the solution I was looking for. So I set out to capture her features once again, wich are slender, even sinewy of nature. True marks of a accomplished dancer in her own right.

Harsh and Soft Contrasts

Somewhere along the way of sketching I felt reluctant to hatch up the lower part to a complete darkness. I have done that in the past such as in Isis – 25-01-19 which had one goal only: a hidden treasure. Now I had this sphere going and her upper body wrapped around it gracefully. Why not stay geometric this time and introduce some forms in the negative space. Hence, the white rectangular spaces in the upper left and lower right corner. They encapsulate her features even more beautifully. Last but not least, I created some power lines, thick and black. They contrast with her angelic face which I kept rather light by introducing smooth gradients. I kept the tonal bandwidth rather small so subtlety reads from her face. I wonder how subtle her character would have appeared for a yearning artist like me.

Pitt Graphite Matt pencil (Faber-Castell, 14B) drawing on Talens Bristol paper (24 x 31 x 0.1 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

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