About This Work

A Full House This pastel drawing ‘Model – 18-02-25 – 1’ includes a Ukrainian woman with very expressive eyes, called ‘Galyna’. Back again in municipal centre ‘De Blauwe Tram’ in Leidschendam we had a full group of 12 participants. Glad I am these live model drawing events are getting popular again. A couple of years back I started to notice people weren’t showing up anymore. At least in high numbers like it used to be over 10 years ago. Maybe due to an increase in prudity. Another reason is that art workshops tend to become more hobby-like. Drawing ‘funny little animals’ (really!) and darling flowers are popular themes. I watch it with sorrow but I guess that’s the way it goes. There always will be a market for doing the real stuff though, such as model sketching. My co-organizer Hélène and I am glad we’ve found an incrowd still interested. Enter Galyna Enter Galyna. She had trouble parking so I let her park on my space. my car I put a little bit farther down the road. Turned out she had a busy day, doing acting work for a group of police men. Therefor she still wore dark mascara which was a bonus for us, hence the expressive eyes. We started a little bit late but I think I captured her essence though. At the same time it didn’t feel as quite finished, I must admit. Luckily for me I had the privilege to take a photo of her. Back Home Back home I saw the potential to do more subtle tones in her musculature. Without knowing why I love to simply delve into the complexity of tones in the female body. Just like any other fetisj for that matter. Perhaps a former pastel drawing ‘Pastel Study 04 (2013)’ came to mind. In the past my dad organized day care activities for phychiatric patients. I remember one time I came to visit him at work. There I saw people sifting bots and nuts with a smile on their face. Such is life for me. Give me a charcoal or conté chalk and let me do my tonal work. Very satisfying. Botticelli’s Venus Last but not least, she was sitting on some cushions. That’s a normal thing for a model. Otherwise it’s a long unbearable harsh session. However, they weren’t particularly interesting to draw. Therefor I turned them into a rudimentary wavy pattern. Now she’s Botticelli’s Venus born out of godly foam. Pastel drawing on Hahnemühle Dürer Ingres-Bütten Night Blue paper (48 x 62,5 x 0.1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers