Simone Signoret

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Sans Titre – 25-01-15 depicts French actress and celebrity Simone Signoret. Her carreer spans over four decades, being active in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Don’t you think it was about time I should give her due credit? Hence I made a great chiaroscuro drawing of her, reflecting somehow the epoque of film noir. Some time ago I found a beautiful picture of her in her younger days. She was a real looker back then. In later years she got these bags below her eyes and of course gravity catches up with us all. Nevertheless her eyes kept her beauty and her acting performance on screen became legendary.

Advancing

After the first two Sans Titre drawings in 2015 I made a third one depicting Loretta Young. However, as to this one I immediately I saw some great diagonals. They provide me something to hold on whilst experimenting with her portrait in a cubistic way. Furthermore, this fourth one I consider one step further with regard to refinement of my drawing techniques. To be specific, I like the triangular structure stemming from her pulse, forearm and forehead. It creates a kind of focus inwards. That’s because the spectator’s attention is led towards her facial features of the eyes, nose and mouth. Honestly, I did not do much more than follow the triangled posture of her arms and tilted head really.

The Hair

Then again, there are some additions to the mix. Just as in Loretta’s portrait I liked doing the hairdo. Three parallel linear structures on top of her head enforce the parallellism of the position of facial features. They all run in the same tilted position, creating rhythym. This is the last drawing before I exectuted in hatched strokes. Later in 2015 I found it more suitable to do portraits in smooth tonal transitions using a stump. Gloria Swanson’s was done in this new style.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Canson Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm – A4 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers

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