Part 4 Project 2 Exercise 2 A longer study

It always amazes me how long it takes me to get into a project. This exercise had me scouring the internet for photographs, until I eventually found this photograph of a young woman wrapped in a bath towel. I connected with it as it reminded me of times when I went to the Banya, Turkish style baths, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, as explained previously, I do not have access to live models, other than an obliging family member, and I felt like drawing someone different.

I started out this study with a sketch which sought to explore the proportions of the woman. I found this to be far more challenging than I had anticipated. Her face appeared deceptively smaller than the swathes of toweling, and the broadness of her back and crossed legs. My final sketch did not give the right impression of the proportions or the movement of her pose.

Proportions study

Hodgson, Ian. Angel Part.

I then went back to exploring the works of ian Hodgson. In this work of his Angel Part he successfully uses graphite media with an eraser to striking effect. The eraser becomes a highlighting pencil, drawing sweeping strokes across the graphite of the image. He then emphasizes contours and folds with calligraphic lines created by the irregular strokes from an ink pen or brush. The effect is to emphasize the sensuous nature of the folds and curves. Although the proportions are correct, his aim was to create more of an ethereal sensuality, than a correctly executed pose. I decided to explore some of his technique, to see if I could take my picture beyond a study in proportions, to take the focus off of my struggles to get proportions right.

In my sketchbook I explored how I could create the fluffy, rough texture of the towel as a contrast to the smoothness of the sitter's skin. I used the side of a black conte pastel to lay down a film of speckled black. I then worked my eraser into the chalk to create the highlights of the folds. Then adding water color black pencil and some 6B, I continued to work the folds to allow for the sense of deep undulations of folds, but with highlights that are speckled with the characteristic points of shadow of a towel surface. I used two different ink pens to try out different effects. The one was a store bought ink pen, which created finer, but also pretty regulated and controlled lines. Then I used a feather that I had cut to become a quill pen to try for more loose, unplanned, irregular strokes. I particularly like the spontaneous nature of the quill pen with its broad and delicate lines.

Sketchbook Experimentation with the towel texture.

On an A3-sized piece of white paper, I lightly sketched in the proportions of the woman. Unlike my previous sketches, I found that I could not get her proportions right. Eventually, I tried a completely different approach. I sketched in the spread of the back view of her crossed legs and then worked out from the photograph how many heads should fit into this span. I figured out that it was about four-and-a-half. I then worked out what four-and-a-half would look like and from there figured out the relative size of the head. I then worked up the body from the backside, up to the head. This seemed to do the trick. I was eventually able to get the pose down with the slight twist in the torso.

I then used a black watercolor pencil and a 6B pencil to lightly shade in the tones of the woman's skin, carefully working the facial features. I tried to include lots of white to show the strong side lighting on her. Once her skin was drawn in, I used the technique I had practiced to fill in the folds of the towel.

I retrospect, I think that I have managed to show some of the contrast between her smooth, highlighted flesh and the fluffy texture of the towels wrapped around her. Her pose has a slight sense of movement and expectancy to it. As the viewer, you are forced to fill in some of the visual information, which was what I was trying to achieve.

Woman swathed in toweling.

Illustration

Hodgson, I., Angel Part. Ian Hodgson Gallery. [Online] 70 x 100cm.
Available at: http://ian-hodgson.co.uk/gallery.html
[Accessed 17 2016 2016].