Michael, Kneeling

There really needs to be a Sky Naked Figure Drawing Of The Year program.  I'm sure I could make a decent crack of it.  Inktense pencils are the secret weapon.  They're just amazing.

Today's model was Michael.  I picked a pose that I could zoom in on and end up with minimal exposure to head, hands and feet.  For the colours, I started with charcoal grey for the darkest bits, then just had a good time with sea blue, violet, leaf green and chilli red.  It's hard to go wrong with those colours.  I just have to remember to not be tempted by yellow.  Yellow never really comes out right and the brightest bits of the bodies are better off being left white, like here.

As a special bonus, here's the painting at the point when I'd finished with the pencils and was about to add water.  Just marvel about how little pencil needs to actually go down on the paper!

Anyway, after the pencils went down I added the water.  With so many big white gaps, I was able to take my time over this, doing one part of the body at a time.  Some of the best bits are where there's no pencil and in the one second or so (honestly) before the ink dries, I'm able to brush over some slightly tinted water to avoid hard edges.

I'm happy with this.  It's up for sale.  BB King didn't used to play many notes on the guitar and people used to talk about there being as much beauty in the gaps as in the notes.  It's like that with this painting.