50 cm (w) x 64 cm (h), acrylic paints on prepared paper.
Date produced: 1988 - 1992

This was painted directly from a model, within a single three-hour session. It was produced as part of my studies during my Bachelor of Education (Secondary Art).

Painting, rather than drawing requires more time and more management. I tried to paint this image in a ‘similar way’ to the conté life drawings of models that I had been doing (i.e. concentrating on getting an accurate ‘drawing’ of the model, and just using tones). I kept the selection of paints down to using just white and raw umber, to produce a monochrome image (just shades of raw umber through to white) to express the tones and remove the extra time required for full colour mixing.

Even using just raw umber and white paints, to minimise the time needed for mixing, I still needed to work very quickly. You can see that some parts of the painting show more ‘finish’ and detail than others. I’ve tried to respond to a fairly accurate ‘drawing’ of the model, the major tones observed within the scene, as well as expression of the major forms in the model.