En Profil

This charcoal and pastel drawing ‘Model Session – 2026-06-20 – 1’ shows our life model Henriëtte on a stool. Finally showing her ‘en profil’. She’s back as one of our favourite models. Perhaps I told this before. If you haven’t had the chance to sketch Henriëtte at a life‑drawing session yet, you don’t count. Personally, I have the pleasure to know her for more than 15 years. In 2013 I made a first portrait in oil (frontal view). All life pastel drawing events were done using her front but I never drew her side view. This was a great opportunity to do so. It was hot this Saturday in municipal centre ‘De Blauwe Tram’. However, that didn’t get in the way of finding her features quickly. That’s not suprising with such a good model.

Execution Came Easy

So the execution came relatively easy. Obviously the upper part of her body was the most important feature to capture. Not much need for depicting her feet as well. To draw a person in full can be very boring and static looking. Basically, you make a model appear smaller than he or she would look in real life. In fact, when you look at someone up close you always focus on someone’s head or any other feature. Other parts become blurry anyway, simply by one’s peripheral view.  Hence my more elaborated head and hand leaning on the backrest of the bar stool. The line to indicate her buttocks at the bottom of the drawing I like best. It reminds me of the indicative lines of an earlier drawing, called ‘Sans Titre – 2023-06-28 (Veronica Lake)’. Very minimal yet perfect in its essence.

Pastel drawing on Hahnemühle Dürer Ingres-Bütten Night Blue paper (48 x 62,5 x 0.1 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com

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