Smoking Follow Up

Another drawing night in Belmar. Our model tonight is the same one who worked there two weeks ago and who worked for me last week for my new smoking piece. Tonight's results weren't great (the night's best, a 30 minute charcoal is seen above), but they were a little better than what I did on July 7th. If only one of the 3 weeks was truly successful, I'm glad it was the day I was working on the woodcut.

I took advantage of the model's presence to follow up with some questions related to the woodcut piece. The model has about half a dozen significant tattoos, which I always ignore when I'm drawing with charcoal. However, with this smoking piece at least partly about documenting life in the early 21st century, it makes sense that the figure have a tattoo, as they have become very common in this day and age. (fifty years ago, respectable women generally didn't have tattoos, and it's possible they will fall out of fashion fifty years from now) Our discussion was related to the significance of the locations of her various tattoos (two are visible on her right arm in the photo of her in the pose), since anything I would draw would be a change from her actual appearance. Luckily she is open to whatever I decide to do. When I decide what that is, I'll post it on the blog.