Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Face masks and Sandpaper. Tools of the trade!

I'm almost finished with the drawing of the female nude in shadow (I have yet to give her a more profound name!  Suggestions are welcome!).

Today I finished the over-all shadows, and was ready to move into darker darks.  This is the drawing after only drawing with a hard charcoal pencil...


Shadows are all pretty even, there is a nice value range, but I can go even deeper and darker by using a soft charcoal pencil that creates a richer black.


 Detail of the hand area of the drawing...before


and after

The texture you see on the legs comes from the (intentional) rough application of modeling paste on the surface.
And while working on the shadows, I also worked on the light.  For this technique, I used a soft kneaded eraser in the shadows to model the figure, but for the strongest hi lights I used sandpaper to remove charcoal and reveal the clean layers of modeling paste and gesso underneath.


And this gets rather dusty, which I am sure is not good for my lungs, so I was looking ever so stylish in my face mask!
(Can you see the thrill in my eyes?)


I did have to laugh at myself many many times.  I kept trying to blow the dust off the piece as I was sanding.  With the face mask still on. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've always loved shopping for art supplies at Home Depot. :P
Really nice sense of volume developing in this piece.

Denise

StormcrowNaturePreserve said...

You're posts always make me smile. I love that you are not too serious about yourself or your art even though you are so talented you COULD be! Love the mask photo, too!

Krystyna81 said...

Thank you Denise! Yes - Home Depot and Lowes have incredible supplies...plus it's a lot cheaper to have glass cut there for framing!

PPP...If I can make you smile and send a little inspiration your way, then that really makes my day :)

Fay Akers said...

thanks for all the close up shots of your work process. It was very interesting.

Victoria Webb said...

An especially sensitive nude, Kristina...lovely!

Lrc said...

I too love the range of shadow and am glad to see you punching up the darkness. The texture of the background works well with the softness of the charcoal.

Krystyna81 said...

Thank you!

Stickeenotes said...

I can't say I know much about art, but, as they say, I know what I like. And, I really like this. You've really captured something special here.