About This Work

Art Graf Debutant Of late I am exploring textures of fabrics like satin, silk and all other shining objects such as gold and silver. Two months ago I made the first one, depicting Geesje Kwak. I must say it opens up a world of possibilities as well as a can of worms. Obviously an artist is subject to permament schooling. All that shines makes me search for new solutions for problems I didn’t have with skin. Today I shifted gear and took it on me to overcome a new obstacle: Art Graf. It is relatively new and basically is water soluble graphite. It comes in sticks and pencils. This one is executed in soft carbon pencil. True Water Colorist My dad Henk Akkers is the true water colorist in the family. It was years ago, even since puberty when I touched water other than for drinking or sanitory reasons. On the other hand, why not give it a shot? Working with this offered certain advantages like filling up plains very quickly. I soon had to solve some issues though like plains becoming too spotty. But I guess new born eyes always cry with pain. This one, my third attempt, is reasonable enough I think. The chair in the back I kept a little lighter than it appeared to be. This way it underligns the heavy lighting coming from the window in the back. Still some learning and mastering to do. Satin Fetish On of the reasons to take satin as a subject was for its squarish, edgy folds creating abrupt tonal shifts. On the other hand it can also show soft gradients. It goes beyond saying I took a cubist approach, subte as it may be. The satin sheets I used before. I had a pink and a blue one. This one is the latter and I might want a bigger one. The lady at the market who sold them probably considered me to be a pervert. The model by the way, is my regular Indian model, also posing for my last drawing. Art Graf soft carbon pencil drawing (wash) on Strathmore Mixed Media (22.9 x 30.5 cm). Artist: Corné Akkers