Struck by Inspiration

This pastel drawing ‘Model Session – 24-03-26 – 2’ is the second one from our monthly life drawing session. Lots of cubism in a triangular shaped position. In fact, half a year ago I made my last cubist life model drawing of Henriëtte Sibie. These inspiriational whims come as they may and sometimes, all of a sudden, your’e struck by them immediately. Such was the case with this position. In other occasions with other positions I just don’t see the full potential to unleash my cubist powers. Lots of triangles in slanted position this time.

Rendering Features Came Easy

First session was great but I found the size of the body depicted too small on paper. You can always solve that by incorporating a fellow sketcher and so I did. However, this time I took extra care to use the full potential of the width of the paper. Seeing our lovely model from the position I took I saw half of the paper could be occupied by her features. That was the basic idea. Rendering those features came easy, even easier than the first one. What left me was a black and white version that wasn’t too bad. I’ve made so many of them throughout the years though and I wanted something else. What else I didn’t know yet, so I kept it lingering in my studio for a month or so.

Full Color

Then came Kingsday (27^th April) and executed my prestudy ‘Where Rounds Drift’ in full color. That one I found to be succesful, surpassing my expectations. Why not do finish this one in color as well? The cubistically styled planes and body proportions already were correct so I didn’t need to tweak those as well. Simply search for a matching color scheme. I decided to take this lovely box of Mungyo soft pastels off the shelf. Together with a small box of Unison pastels they provided me with all the colors I needed.

Danger of Using Too Many Sorts of Colors

Now, working with soft pastels comes easy for me. There lurks the hidden danger of using too many sorts of colors. Colors that are too saturated as well. This deadly combination tended to kill many of my pastels in the past. Planes were too stricktly delineated and relations between colors could be very hefty complementary. Back then I liked that very much but nowadays I’m much more subtle. That is why I hatched with a light green pastel over the highlights in the end. Vice versa a dark green pastel over de shadowy parts. This way, all colors were harmonized and a bit tuned down. Still showing a hugh variety of colors though.

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

Artist: Corné Akkers

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