Creating Model Session - 22-04-25 (Jelco) - 1

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Jelco Back Again

This pastel drawing ‘Model Session - 22-04-25 (Jelco) – 1’ looks like one of those classic academic poses. With a touch of chiaroscuro though. Back in ‘De Blauwe Tram’ in Leidschendam we had male model Jelco pose for us again. Last time was in October 2024. Our group of live drawers and painters mostly consist of women. Therefor it’s only reasonable to invite a man over regularly. Luckily for us Jelco obliged us with his arrival. Slender, elegant yet muscular. Even though I’m a ladiesman myself I always can appreciate a model with clear set-off muscles. From an artistic point of view you can get hold of a subject and define wonderful planes to render.

A Bit of a Letdown

This having said the pose I had in front of me was a bit of a letdown. We had him pose on a makeshift pedistone. In order to create a more dynamic pose he holds a stick. This also enabled him to stand on the ball of his right foot. Inspiring enough but the letdown expressed itself in quite a boring lighting really. Aforemeant musculature became too faint, only showing in the scare highlights on the arm and leg. The pose itself was quite alright though. Consequently I knew right from the start I had to elaborate this pastel drawing further back home. So I quickly took a photo while the pose was still fresh. Live models tend to not hold their pose after a while.

Ultimately Successful

Back home I managed to beef up tonality in the picture by cranking up contrasts. That did the trick and now I was able to see more subtle shifts in tones muscularwise. Last but not least I removed most of the white negative space. That had become too white in an attempt to compensate for a lack of tonality in the body. At the end of the session I found it took chalcky, almost as if he was standing in a cold room. Finally all things were balanced out just fine. Not bad for a pastel done withing two hours.

Pastel drawing on Hahnemühle Dürer Ingres-Bütten Night Blue paper (48 x 62,5 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers