Leroy's Art Blog

 A lot of the first session went into getting materials for various poses and setups of the model, adjusting lights, considering sightlines from various locations, etc.  Finally the class decided on a horizontal pose with the model (Corina) lying on a table with a couple of solid-color blankets beneath her.

That left time enough to make a couple of small sketches of the model to think about until the next session:


My first thought was that I loved the full-length figure - her extended foot and her hand positions seemed to be very interesting parts of the pose.  However, using the whole figure also elongates the figure a great deal, and almost seem a distraction from the figure.  So, at home, I copied the sketch I’d made, and tried making a bunch of small studies with pen and ink, in order to (1) see if it would be better to crop the figure, and how strongly, and (2) to explore what dimensions would be best for the composition.  Osborne had suggested that we use a relatively large canvas - and indeed, the kind of simple compositions typical of Osborne really do require a large space.

Some studies of the figure, with various length/width dimensions and various degrees of cropping:


Actually, I think the diamond shape is very attractive, but maybe a bit hokey.  The full-length figure (top & middle, right) don't look so great any more - the interesting details are at the edges of the composition and it kind of leaves a hole in the middle.  Cropping, but including the hands and face still seem to draw too much attention there (top left, bottom right), so the best option is the torso itself (bottom left).  These little studies also suggest that the best height/width dimensions for the canvas would be 4x5.

But Utrecht Art Supply didn't have a large 4x5 canvas, so I ended up with a 30" x40" (3x4) canvas.  Not exactly what I wanted, but OK.  The next step was to blow up my study sketch to canvas size to see how it might look:


Now looking forward to our next session with Osborne, and Corina.