Estate ‘Voorlinden’ at Wassenaar, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands has become my favourite park because it holds everything dear to me: a classic mansion from the 1920s, a museum of modern art with an interesting collection and last but not least a park surrounding the main buildings of equisite quality.
This one is special. Long since they passed away only know to reappear in pastel. This one represents my uncle Ben taking care of his son Matthijs some 30 years ago.
Last day of the year and completed a work in progress I started during a live session with my regular model. With just two simple LED reading lamps I got the atmosphere right
Last Thursday 21th of November I had my regular model over again in my studio and it was a good session. I placed two led light sources next to her, creating a nice razor light over her body.
Saturday 16th Novembern2019 I had Julia Gómes Avilés over as a model again. I wanted to express her dancing skills by a dynamic pose in which she holds her foot and combine it with her bodily features running off paper like natural waves.
A commissionary piece. The girl has natural blonde hair, alabaster skin and blue eyes. It goes without saying that it was senseless to put her in full daylight. I let her sit for me ‘contrejour’ so the light from behind would be shattered through her blonde hair like through a prisma.
Model sketching time again. My mind was occupied with many other projects but live model sketching always has priority. Whereas skecthing often is called the primary process, live model sketching I consider to be primus inter pares.
A quick sketch in pastel and charcoal after I completed my graphite pencil drawing ‘Wijk bij Duurstede – 20-05-19’ this evening.
Before last Tuesday’s model session I thought of a great pose I instructed to my model.
Last session with my model I wanted to have her pose a little bit more risqué but counterbalance it by keeping the hatched strokes rather rough than to finepolish them into tonal matching strokes that would approach realism too much.
The object was to do a pastel drawing similar to ‘model session – 17-01-19’ but to keep the hatched strokes rather wide. I also wanted to combine more complementary colour combinations in order to get a greyish look while on the other hand those hatched strokes look very saturated up close.
Last Thursday it was time for my regular model to sit for me in my studio. I keep a clean blanket for her she can sit on.
This evening I had a great session with my main model throughout the years. She is slender, knows what I want and shows dark skin tones, giving my the possibility to fool around with all sorts of colours.
A classic model study I did yesterday at Leidschendam, Netherlands.
A pastel of a treescape at Royal estate ‘De Horsten’ at Wassenaar, Netherlands. This one I did last Saturday for a group of pastel students and limited myself to appromixately 2 hours, synchronizing to the time span of the pastel workshop, in order for them to relate to a quick build-up without throwing too much details like leaves and branches.
Based on my previous graphite drawing ‘Roundism – 11-01-18’ I made this one in pastel, allowing me to study the female body covered in oil.
I was intrigued by the compact forms of the model’s body and especially by the curve of her tibia tot he instep of her foot.
Some months ago I started attending some drawing sessions at Rotterdam where I did short positions again.
Based on a earlier roundism graphite pencil drawing I made this pastel adding the realm of colours. I wanted the woman appear in a kind of midsummernight’s dream with lots of yellow and blues, girded with some purples and pinks.
Yesterday’s session at Rotterdam offered Gabriëlle, the model of that Sunday afternoon. She had great hip bones and was slender, thus showing great angles and triangles with her body.
Short positions at live model sketching took me back to reinvent my way rendering human bodies and together with my new found Pastelmat by Clairefontaine I was able to experiment with new ways.
A commissioned piece done in an impressionistic style with lots of clairobscur. I had to come up with a solution for depicting his pale skin hues and still rendering them too unsaturated.
Another 15 min. sketch I made at the same session of October 15th during a live model session at Rotterdam. This is also pastel on Pastelmat.
A 15 min. sketch I made yesterday during a live model session at Rotterdam.
A 5 min. sketch I made yesterday at a session at Rotterdam. Fun to do short positions again.
Drawn in one of the monthly live drawing sessions at Studio Brugman, Voorburg, Netherlands.
An impressionistic approach to live model sketching with one of my favorite models – done at Voorburg. Netherlands.
Enter the gloom! I wanted to delve into the darkness and bring a woman back into the light. With a little help from my friend Look J. Boden for the excellent photography and the top class model that stood for us.
