Creating Neo Deco – 04-11-24

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/neo-deco-04-11-24/
Printable: https://corneakkers.com/product/printable-neo-deco-04-11-24/

Clairfontaine Noir

This pastel drawing ‘Neo Deco – 04-11-24’ takes me back to black paper (Clairfontaine Noir). For a previous drawing 4 years ago I used it only once. That was for ‘Sea Swimming – 30-07-20’. Lately I was rearranging my videos on my Youtube Channel when I came across it. Then I thought, why wouldn’t I give it another try? It turned out rather well and working on it with pastel pencil goes very fast. It’s also very comforting doing a quicky once in a while. Last drawing of Lauren Bacall took a lot of time to complete.

1920s

You see, I had no real nifty pretentions. Only sketching a bit. So I took a very old picture from the shelf. The resolution was very low so it looked rather grainy. From which photographer this comes from I haven’t got the faintest clue. My best guess is from the 1920s so definitely the Art Deco era. Since aforementioned graininess was so dire I took the liberty to cubistically style it and exaggerate forms bit. This time there were no alterations to the theme such as the window behind Ms Bacall.

Tonal Studies

Merely a tonal study really. So students saw me sketching this one out today in my studio. To them I often tell them about the importance of doing tonal studies very often. Every artist can agree to this. They lay the foundation of all things sound and interesting in true art. As this particular quick piece, I took up the challenge to execute it with only one pencil (white). On the right side of the woman’s body there were some less lighter planes. Those I simply soften with some putty. No need to use a full array of gray pastel pencils. Only one will do just like I am used to doing graphite pencil drawings. Therefor my motto remains: In simplicity lies complexity.

Pastel drawing on Clairfontaine Noir paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers