Skinny- Tones and Shading

A lot of my sketching has concentrated primarily on scenery and landscapes and, as the previous post proves, my people skills were lacking. So I set my self the task of portraying bodies in a more realistic way. Concentrating on skin tone and shading, I discovered that I have a habit of working in cooler shades. In particular, blue became my default shade for initial sketching and detailing of bone structure and shadows, whilst yellows and greens were lighting and highlighting. I can't bring myself to do stylised and popular body shapes, preferring the natural curves and style of the voluptuous Rubenesque. Particularly with female shape, I believe that naturally women are curvy and fuller figured, perhaps this is merely a reflection of myself.

 A sketch to work on my leg shading. I was pleased with the whole effect and even satisfied with the chair. I think the red toenail adds an extra bullet point to the image, with the leg drawing the eye down to it.

This is again a sketch to improve my detailing on the body of a reclining woman. The hair was what held my attention, though I hope I was successful with the rest. I took time to give the effect of a tan, and stuck to my guns to show an imperfect woman with a less than perfect toned body.

This masculine reclining image had the same sort of feel, yet with a more slender body. I wasn't sure if I preferred this limb arrangement, and the sketch seems poorer than the female one.

 A female figure in the bath, done from the artists viewpoint. I think this lends an interesting perspective with the water pooling around the plumper areas, serving to enhance the imperfections.
The coolness of the colour scheme belying the standard warmth involved in bathing.

Similarly I am very proud of this still life interpretation of the male body. The imperfections merely observed and the shading enhancing the figures depth. For me this has an unusual warmth, although the shading is still in my trademark blues.




















These two are initial sketches, working further on positioning and shading. I'm looking forward to completing them in the near future.