Creating Neo Deco - 21-07-25

Website link: https://corneakkers.com/neo-deco-21-07-25/
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What to Add?

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Neo Deco – 21-07-25’ is yet another display of darkening things up. As was the case in the last drawing by the way. Model Assia never ceases to inspire me and all of a sudden I found this great pose. She sits on a bed and rests her hands on one knee. It look incredibly intimate, almost as if she is in a meditative state. Dim light and the quality of the picture is such that you would have guessed it was taken only yesterday. Emmanuel Sougez was the inspirational source for this one. The old question is always what to add to an already perfect picture? That’s a question I put myself using both old reference pictures but also my own. However, cubist styling never lets me down. So I set out on a journey to spread my sort of cubism onto this scenery.

Total Darkness

Styling became easy more or less but matching it to a great lighting proved to be a tall order. You see, the muted light in the original photo was so beautiful. The preliminary result I got wasn’t though. Consequently forms looked too harsh and the intimate atmosphere was totally ruined. I didn’t know what to do but hatching things up dramatically, tuning down tones maximally. Even the carefully spared white spaces I darkened in order to create the soft look I craved for. Perhaps I contradicted myself with those dark power lines? That could be. The final result pleased me nonetheless. Initially, I strived for something similar to Neo Deco – 13-07-21. In that one I managed to keep structures open so the body features could breathe straight into the negative space. This drawing has become a curious mixture of Seurat blackened impressionism and a bit of cubist lines though.

Graphite pencil (Faber Castell, Pitt Graphite Matt, 14B) drawing on Fabriano Ingres paper (21 x 28.2 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers