Back To Basics

I’ve been trying to push out of my comfort zone at Life Drawing group for a while now. Last night I pulled out a piece of very heavy and textured hand-made paper, a bit bigger than A4, that I’d prepared with acrylic gesso overlaid, when dry, with compressed charcoal and then sealed with spray fixative. The surface wasn’t smooth enough for any of my pens so fine detail was out. I grabbed a white oil bar and focussed on the basic shapes contained within the body.  This model is a larger, mature lady and she reminds me a lot of the sculptures I saw recently at the British Museum’s Ice Age Art exhibition. The heavy texture of the paper gives the surface a rock-like quality and it feels more hewn than drawn.