Life drawing: I see you

I see you. Acrylic and oils on canvas. 91 x76cm
Another version on what to do after the life drawing session. This is a streamlined composition, with each element refined. There was supposed to be two life drawing sessions, due to Covid, this did not happen. In the first session I concentrated on getting a dynamic composition, thinking I would work on the chair at home and work on the skin tone in the next session. After the model had left the room a reference image of the chair was taken. When I knew the next session wasn’t going to take place, the painting took different tack. Gathering together different elements to help, from Rubens’ paintings for skin colour and treatment to Michelangelo sculpture for details of the foot. The model’s features and hair changed to make the work more confrontational. In a painting you can choose to disregard, rework of tweak every element. If you don’t want to paint purple, you don’t have to. It was fun seeing what clothes did to the painting. The title is from a brilliant Aimee Mann song, an imaginary portrait of a character from her last album. The frame is from the great Frans Hals exhibition at the Wallace collection.

The original life study, made in around 3 hours. The photo of the chair without model. A Rubens used as reference for the rendering of skin tones. A page from the sketchbook on the chair with colours from the painting tested around it. A sketch.

Details. Notice the difference between the chair and skin. The chair is in acrylic, the skin in oils.