LFI2021 Week 17

This was my Week 17 Let's Face It 2021 lesson from Juna Biagioni. I didn't go to near the lengths she did in layering—her figure disappeared and re-emerged from the black and white about six times! But I think I got the idea.

I used my same muse I have been painting for the past four to do this assignment. I don't think she will become a part of the final series, for several reasons: She's larger than the rest, she's on smooth paper that didn't really stand up well to the various media, and she just doesn't fit.

Having decided all that, I still enjoyed playing around with this. It was multiple layers of India ink interspersed with white gesso, accented with some Elegant Writer to get a little bit of lavender and green going on in there, and delineated here and there with a Conté charcoal pencil (which is what ended up tearing the paper—I need to get some softer charcoal, I think). In this one, the model let her hair hang forward around her face and looked up from under her substantial brows, so it was a good one to play with in terms of stark blacks and whites because of the shadows.

I enjoyed doing it, and it makes me want to break out the acrylics on a real canvas sometime soon. I'll probably also redo this pose in watercolor to fit with the series—we'll see.

"Intensity"—pencil, Conté charcoal, India ink, white gesso, Elegant Writer, Signo white gel pen, on Fluid hot press (smooth) 140-lb. 100% cotton watercolor paper, about 7.5x9 inches.