Time to Turn Up the Heat

Around this time last year we were still digging ourselves out from the biggest snow storm in recent memory, and with the temperatures rarely getting above freezing for weeks at a time, that snow stayed around for quite a while. By comparison, this year the weather has been pretty mild. Instead of looking at 4 foot high piles of snow and ice, several of the days in the holiday week reached into the 50's. The months that closed out the year were pretty much the same way. However, some true winter weather showed up the past few days. No precipitation, but some bitter cold temperatures. It was only recently that one of the models at drawing night had requested that we turn on the air conditioner; the hot lights shining on her more than made up for her lack of clothing. Not tonight. I had turned the heat up before we started tonight, but halfway through the evening she requested that we raise it again. For the moment anyway, winter is here.

Our model was in one pose for the whole night, but I can't work two hours on a single charcoal drawing, so I drew her from two different sides of the room. For the first drawing I had a profile view with her face mostly in shadow. During the break she agreed that it looked more like her than most of my drawings of her, though (we did not discuss) I felt that the body proportions could have been better. For the second drawing I set up on the other side of the room, right next to a freestanding spotlight that had her completely lit from my point of view. Hardly any of the shadows that are normally a big part of my portrait pieces. The only true darks were all around her- the unlit purple and black stage area behind her. As a result, surface modeling (see above) is more subtle than my usual drawing style (though still a little darker than in reality). Never got the model's opinion on this 45 minute drawing, and the face doesn't look particularly like hers, but my fellow artists really liked the 2nd drawing, so I decided to post this one tonight.