Third time's a charm. Drawing over...and over...

I've had this 12" x 16" pastel board floating around my studio for over a year now.  I have drawn on it twice, both times from the live model, both drawings were...well, horrible might be too strong of a word...but they were not good enough to keep.

So it's been washed off twice.  In a very satisfying gesture, I place the board under the faucet and washed away the pastel drawing that I wasn't happy with.

Finally, on Wednesday evening, I was drawing from the gorgeous miss M and decided to work with color instead of black and white, which I think helped break the spell.

This is the beginning of the drawing, you can still see a lot of the previous drawings beneath.

Even as I covered the surface, I was excited about letting the previous marks show thru.  It created a great atmosphere.

There's an interesting tension, as if she's just about to rise out of her chair.  Her facial expression, which I'm not 100% happy with yet, also implies a clenched jawline.  I re-worked her left hand several times, and I still don't know exactly what to do with it.   I'd like to add some more warmth as well.

I don't think I'll wash this one off :)

You can see more of my original figure drawings in my Etsy Shop.