Bettie Page

A combination of my love for American pin-up and 1950s celebrity Bettie Page and roundism. I liked the reference photo because the tones of the outer parts of her arms matched the negative space outside the body. Because of that the body seems to fade into the background and I had the idea to open up the body and create a fluid look.

Tonality

The drawing seems to look modern but it’s just old school techniques of gaining enough tonality by which the view of the spectator can get enough hold on the body to still recognize it. For some reason I had this idea, and I still do, that contour delineations often make a depiction too harsh looking. That is why I love Cézanne’s paintings for so long now

Oil Painting

The drawing was a prestudy for my oil painting ‘The Return of Bettie Page – 12-08-15’ later that year. In fact, all my drawings are meant as prestudies but I only have one body and too many ideas. This one I found attractive enough to process in oil.

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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