Back to COLOR - New Drawings from the Live Model.

Our figure drawing group had a wonderful evening last night working with a new model.  A lovely petite woman with a short black pixie hair-cut.  We took full advantage of her beautiful back when we set up this lounging back pose with some dramatic lighting near her head.

I was working with Nupastel on a brick red half sheet (about 12" x 19") of Colourfix paper.  I was struggling to get the shadows as rich and deep as I wanted - I just didn't have a dark enough brown.  So I started incorporating some deep prussian blue, a little black, deep burgundy and brown into the shadows.  Where there was a bit of reflected light on her legs I used some brighter turquoise.

But, poor model, this was a very strenuous pose on her shoulder, so we took frequent breaks to let her relax and de-numb her arm.  As she was resting, she was sitting in a position much like this one, and we all agreed - let's cut the lounging pose short and move on to this pose!

The pose and lighting are very similar to pieces I have been working on in black and white - it was interesting to take that practice and turn it into a more colorful (yet still subdued) interpretation.

This was one of our warm-up poses, about 20 minutes.  I still ave to play with it a little more - especially the yellows which came out more acidic than warm.  But I like the diagonal lines and her pose, as well as the cast shadow on her torso.  It has some potential, too!