Creating Neo Deco – 15-08-24

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/neo-deco-15-08-24/
Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-neo-deco-15-08-24/

Aurora

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Neo deco – 15-08-24’ is an impressionist but also cubist experiment. At Brugman Art they had a new brand I haven’t heared of before. It’s a Belgium brand called ‘Aurora’. They offer blocks of A4 paper with a grain texture. See what that may bring me. In the past I have used an array of paper sorts like Ingres and Bristol. You always have to get use to the possibilities of each new sort and exploit the full potential. So I did and the result is that it eats up my pencild quite easily. The result is a landscape of rich dark tones, crumbled and scattered across the paper.

Laure Albin Guillot

It made me think of my artwork ‘Model Study, after Laure Albin Guillot - 25-08-22’. The same open structures but the resemblance also lies in something else. Both drawings are based on reference photos of the 1920s. This one is also Laure’s by the way. They both show a heavily lit side on the model and interesting core shadows. Another aspect is that they both are out of focus. Therefor, I found the grainy structure simply perfect to mimic these light and dark effects.

A Bit of Roundism

However, I wasn’t satisfied with only rendering all the right tones impressionistically this time. Aforementioned first drawing after Guillot’s picture was done on a whim really. Merely out of a curiosity what I could do with Ingres paper after having not use it for decades. This time I added something cubist to the mix. Certain elements of my roundism style are present. Not many but only that much to add value to the model’s relaxed sitting position. Hence the consecutive circular patterns. Personally I like the 6 parallel curves from left to right in the midsection best.

Pitt Graphite Matt pencil (Faber-Castell) drawing on Aurora Grain paper (24 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers