One of our regulars tonight: a venusian, pear-shaped girl, thick buttocks and thighs, slim upper body, pointed breasts, beautifully featured face, voluptuous thick, brunette hair. For sketching her in I decided to try out a very warm pastel chalk tonight. It is deep red, which on gray paper became almost fluorescent (!). Wow.

I’ve selected the reclining fifteen minute pose as the featured image for a couple of reasons. One, usually I groan internally when a model takes the “egg” pose because I find it so uninteresting to draw. But last night, by stretching out her arms alongside her body, one fore, one aft, the pose became quite interesting. Secondly, after sketching her out in fuchsia red with peach and antique lemon highlights, I found I still had a few minutes to add some umber shadow and white highlights. The result, I find, is interesting, almost abstract: figurative and chromatic simultaneously.

Here below are five fifteen minute poses. Conté pencil and crayon on Canson pastel paper. 32.5 x 50 cm or 13 x 19.75 in.

And four of the four minute gesture poses. Black charcoal on tinted sketching paper. 35 x 50 cm or 13.75 x 19.75 in.