The Girl with the Butterfly Tattoos. New model, new figure drawings

As luck would have it, just as I was scheduling models for our February drawing sessions, I got a phone call from (what sounded like) a lovely young woman looking for modeling work.  After a brief chat, I scheduled her for our group that met last Thursday evening and was thrilled to meet such a beautiful woman who was also a terrific model!  She also had a fabulous collection on tattoos running down her leg...9 beautiful butterflies.  I am hoping that our next scheduled drawing session together I get to work more on adding those details to my drawings!

Our first drawing of the night was only 20 minutes long, so I focused on blocking in the large areas of light and shadow.  From my vantage point this was pretty much two large areas - the hi lights along her left side and the shadows along her back.  Once those two shapes were defined, I played within the shapes, finding variations of value and warmth.  I'm happy with everything except her face...I need to soften the information.

This beautiful zig-zag pose also had a dramatic pattern of light and shadow, especially on her face.  There was a cool line of dark blue next to the hi light on her cheekbone, and the reflective light on her jawline was almost glowing with a warm orange.

Hi-lights can seem to "pop" more when they are surrounded by both a cool and warm tone.

The final pose was very sensual...a lounging pose with her head dropped back on the stool and her leg stretched out before her.  I worked on a piece of wallis paper, thinking I would work in pastel, but after my first layer of periwinkle Nupastel I changed my mind - grabbing a cup of water, my brush and my watercolor pencils.  I washed over the pastel with water, moving around the pigment and fixing the shapes of the shadows.  Then I started to draw with the watercolor pencils, adding in some sap greens, purples and oranges. 

I probably would have worked on it a little more, but I think I got the paper too wet, because as I tried to draw with my watercolor pencils they scratched into the surface instead of gliding on it.  I am not sure why that happened, most of the time the Wallis paper is incredibly durable and allows me to work extensively.

But all that asside...I love the look of this drawing,  I think it's simple and sexy.