Portrait Artist Forum - Working on a pastel nude

This model has a lovely "S"-curved gesture that nicely leads the eye through the drawing. There's a full range of values -- albeit mostly in the shadow range -- in what nonetheless appears to be a quite dimly lit setting, perhaps early dawn. You said you're working on the curtain, which I assume must be sheer enough to admit the relatively bright light onto a few parts of the figure. You've worked to clearly state shadow shapes on the figure, which are essential to create form.

Anatomical presumptions are just the starting point when you're doing a life drawing with a unique individual standing in front of you, so there's really not much I can offer by way of detail, but I'll mention of couple of general things that caught my eye.

I gave some thought to the distances from the neck to the shoulders, as the distance on the near side seemed relatively short . . . or else the other side was long, without apparent reason for the difference. I thought perhaps the head was in slightly the wrong position or the wrong size, but my experimenting with that didn't pan out. I think it comes down to two areas. The distance across the far shoulder is in fact, I think, ever so slightly long -- hold up a dark piece of paper to shave off just a sliver of the outside turn around the deltoid area. On the other side, I think the distance may be correct but the trapezius muscle from the top of the neck toward the shoulder is perhaps too prominent, like what we'd see on a bodybuilder, and it optically displaces that back edge of the neck, causing the distance to the arm appear short. Again, the suggested modification is only very slight, a concave crescent shaved out of that area where the trapezius meets the neck.

One last thing on that other (far) shoulder. It seems that it should be rising slightly, not continuing to fall, as it nears the neck. Perhaps you're trying to avoid an awkward parallel with the bottom line of the chin, but I think the shoulder shape needs that bit of attention.

I was also trying to sort out what appeared to be excessive foreshortening in the legs, so that they appeared much too thin for the torso, but I realized that in fact the arms were covering parts of the legs' thickness. I think that's instructive, though, to be mindful of the way a particular pose can unintentionally create a problem -- a hand resting on a hip, say, so that all we can see is fingers, giving a awkward "claw"-like appearance; an arm falling straight down alongside the torso and hip in a limp parallel; a hand seemingly amputated by its disappearance behind another limb or an object.

I don't think I'm seeing the piece well enough to comment much on the shadow shapes, except in two places. It seems that the upper edge of the dark shadow on this side of the breast on the viewer's left would curve upward as it followed the anatomical curve, and would grow lighter as it rose toward the light, rather than remain so sharply defined right up to the edge of the tonal shape. On the other breast, the shadow shape underneath seems way too dark, considering all the light around it.

Lastly, the perspective on the frame on the wall painting behind the figure doesn't seem to agree with the table or desk apparently sitting below it. Perhaps there's a room corner back there that I can't see, but something's odd about that frame.

It's a very lovely pose and drawing. I hope you'll push it along even more.

Best wishes,
Steven