Toga Party

6/9/15 India ink, graphite, Canson 98 lb. mixed-media paper

The ink-drawing class I’m taking this quarter is coming to a close. Yesterday and at next week’s final class, we are using our choice of all the techniques we’ve learned in hatching and shading using pen and ink, ink washes and sumi-e to render a model. To make it more “interesting,” the model was draped in fabric, toga-style.

Rendering all that draped fabric was definitely challenging, but even as I grumbled through today’s exercise, I realized the draping was a good move. All the hatching techniques I learned from Van Gogh, Raphael and other masters seemed to have escaped me when presented with a live model. Bare skin would have been even more challenging, at least in pen and ink, which was my choice today. I decided I couldn’t bear to shade the delicate contours of Danielle’s face with hatching, so I did that part with graphite.

Next week I think I’ll give myself a break and use ink washes instead!