Underlit

Shawna
ProCreate for iPad Pro

Last Thursday our figure model was just excellent. She came to the studio with a clear vision in mind of the pose she wanted to, and held it, rock steady, for 20 minutes at a time, over the entire three hours.

She laid across one arm - the studio lights on her right caught the underside of her jaw and neck, illuminating the orbits of her eyes.

I started out intending to do an hour of warm up drawing. I chose the soft pastel brush and a palette of grey. After an hour went by I kept drawing the entire three hours. I guess I wanted a break from color.

I nailed down the placement of her features fairly well early on, but it wasn’t until the last 20 minutes or so that I really got the tone of the mouth correct - where the upper lip is lit from beneath, casting a shadow upwards to the nose.