Creating Model Session – 18-10-25 – 2

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Henriëtte Sibie’s Portrait

This pastel drawing ‘Model Session – 18-10-25 – 2’ shows Henriëtte Sibie’s portrait. A bit of cubism but realist as well. My first session’s pastel showed a reclined position but we like the variety of it all. Therefor we already decided in advance to have her pose in two different poses. The second one she stood right up and we had her lean on an easel comfortably. After all, she had to take this pose for one hour at one stretch. Well, leave that to Henriëtte. She’s a great professional model and she can stand perfectly still. Ideal to draw her portrait. Which was my very aim to be honest.

Measuring out Proportions

Not the first time I did a portrait of her beautiful features though. In fact, quite some time ago, in 2013 I painted one. After that I hired her as model a couple of times but mostly as model for students to pose. However, this time I felt this was my chance to do another portrait. My view on her from the room and the very lighting were perfect. First, measuring out proportions wich was a bit of a drag. The reason is she has a great yet lush hairdo with lots of individual hairs and locks sticking out. Consequently, one cannot compare height and width to establish a clear ratio for defining spatial boundaries on paper. Luckily I could get hold of the length from chin to the scalp just below the hairline. From there to the end of the hairdo way up was equal in length.

Cubist Planes

The initial goal was to keep it cubist looking and I think I did a good job. Especially some cubist planes in her chest do their abstract magic. These areas can be bothersome to depict. Her clavicles weren’t showing to much because of the overexposure. Nevertheless, by styling some light planes into more abstract ones I got a beautiful contrast with her head. The play of light and dark on her face are cubist too yet more refined. A lovely live session and I got her likeness within that hour. Back home I cleaned things up a bit and refined a couple of features.

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