About This Work

New Paper This pastel drawing ‘Model Session - 17-06-25 – 1’ is a cubist experiment really. Model Donika delighted us with her arrival. Well, the experiment is contained in the new paper I found at Artifac’s. We are talking about Sennelier Pastel Card. It’s grainy, almost sandy but the package leaflet tells it’s made of plant fibers. In the past I used a lot of Pastelmat and Mi-Teintes Touch. So I am quite used to rugged pastel surfaces. Those are the best because they can absorb a lot more pigment. Older types of pastel paper will not hold as much as pigment as those more modern typesof paper. Getting to Know Eachother So off we went for the first session of this month. Likewise it’s also the last live drawing event of this season. Sketching with a charcoal stick like I am used to in last sessions, using Hahnemühle’s Ingres paper. Soon I found myself in a bit of a jam. That is because of the coarse surface was eating up my charcoal all too eagerly. Then I found out the paper is not to be tampered with. It doesn’t allow corrections too much by erasing. My kneaded eraser and even my pencil eraser simply couldn’t wipe out the incorrectly placed head. Conclusion: I started to frantically using paper unknow to me. In addition, the model took a rather complex pose. Her limbs on the left side were tightly packed, showing very compact forms. My preliminary result after one hour was a bit of a let down. Corrections Not too bad but not great either even though proportions were correct. However, I corrected contour delineations of her head with some white pastel. Those mishaps still were showing through though. That’s why I posted the second version first because I was quite happy with it. The day after the session I erased the white planes because she appeared as if been put in a freezer. Then I remembered I had some Schmincke gold pastel chalks. Those did the trick. All in all I managed to completely cover up all bad parts. Next to this, in the last stage I also added some grey pastel parts. They play their part as simultaneous contrasts to those gold ones, becoming almost blueish. Loved to use gold pastel again. The last one was ‘Golden - 13-12-23’ and I forgot about them, only for coming to my aid today. Pastel drawing on Sennelier Pastel Card paper (40 x 30 x 0.1 cm) Artist: Corné Akkers