The general idea I had was do work towards abstraction from my photo, starting out with an observational painting and then increasingly follow what I might discover while studying my subject. I chose a large format (18 x 24 inches / 45 x 60 cm or roughly A2) for my series based on the experience that I like to have a bit of space to work on.

Figure I

This painting started with a pencil underdrawing, focusing on accurately capturing proportions and tonal areas. The idea of abstracting by neatly separating tonal areas lingered through my head and informed the approach. But soon after some layers of watercolour, I felt that the entire painting had become too dark and too tight, therefore decided to wash it all off and rework on top. But then looking at the washed off painting, it looked so natural that I just added the contour lines of the figure with charcoal pencil, spray fixed it and stayed with the result.

At this point, I made a break and did some research on Tamara de Lempicka (blog article), because my charcoal drawings of the female nude had reminded me of her paintings. It was very interesting to learn that she had also painted in cubist style. I spent quite some time reviewing her paintings and was impressed by their strong visual language without ambiguities and the intense colours.

Reflecting on my own first painting, I made some notes about what I wanted to take further:

• Move towards abstraction. I had in mind the progression I developed in the series of paintings from the rocks at the seaside, where I tried to follow up visual ideas and depart from accurate representation
• Experiment with media and colour. I was interested in using transparent wax to retain white areas while being able to work with broad strokes over the entire surface. I also wanted to experiment with the technique of a charcoal underdrawing to create lines and shades, then use watercolours to emphasize shapes and perspective. I also thought about using ink to obtain real deep, waterproof black marks and clear lines. Pen and ink combined with a wet-in-wet technique was might also be interesting
• Try out different approaches towards ‘painting a figure’. One idea was inspired by the life drawing class instructor, who pointed to the concept of ‘surface planes’ to depict the three-dimensionality of the body. These surfaces were oriented in different orientations and angles in space and he suggested to train our eyes to perceive these surfaces when looking at the model. Another approach I considered was to try and find increasing simplification of shapes and reduction of detail.

Figure II

The second painting was also based on a pencil underdrawing for the figure, but I tried to loosen up a bit. I used transparent wax for the lighter areas, then made a wash over the entire surface, and after letting it all dry, used black ink to block in the shadows of the figure. I tried to simplify the shapes and reworked lighter areas with white oil pastels, and darkened the background with a layer of charcoal.

I felt the drawing was still too naturalistic but I liked that there was an increase in dynamics and ‘presence’. Somehow this figure felt closer, intensified and more real than the first one.

Figure III

This one was definitely inspired by Tamara de Lempickas figure drawings in its bold approach to shape. I used charcoal for the outlines and to block in areas of shadows. The process of drawing was very different from earlier drawings because I mentally prepared each stroke and where I wanted to place it on the paper. There were some corrections involved to make the lines for different parts of the body correspond to each other. The charcoal layer was fixed and then worked over with watercolours. The approach was kind of ‘naturalistic abstraction’ – the forms and shapes are distorted, but they convey much energy and movement and the figure remained recognizable as a female nude in her seated position. There was also a compositional effort to ‘fill the plane’ with the figure, reducing the amount of background area.

Figure IV

I wanted to develop the abstraction further and spend a lot of time looking at my photo source. I was aware of the danger of monotony by working from a single photo and retaining the same pose for all paintings. So I began to explore compositional alternatives and followed ‘visual phantasies’ I developed while looking at the painting. There was an idea of dissolving the unity of the figure by bringing its components closer to the edges, thus transforming the overall shape. I imagined the face turned upwards to the sky, the arms oriented vertically, parallel to the left and right edges of the surface, and the bent leg parallel to the lower edge of the surface. Another aspect that interested me was the interplay of hard and soft edges to indicate figure versus ground.

These ideas were integrated gradually into the painting. It started again with a pencil drawing where I tried to develop a different shape of the figure, following these ideas. It resulted in distortion and a ‘strange body’. I retained the correctly placed right arm and added a second displaced silhouette with the arm closer to the right edge. I used colour to dissolve the strict distinction between figure and ground, letting the blue background develop into the back figure and taking up the orange of the foreground figure as a second background colour. Then I employed black ink for the shades and edges of contrast. I used a dagger brush and moved it around to approximate the shapes of the shadows. These marks indicate the background behind a shape, but also the shades within the figure.

I intensified the blue and orange colours with several layers of watercolours and finally added a layer of black oil pastel over the background which greatly improved the overall effect because it helps the eye to distinguish between figure and ground.

What I like about this painting is that it depicts phantasies and imagery, there’s a dream-like quality to it and I feel there are lots of interpretations possible around female identity and self-perception.

On the other hand, after these four paintings, I felt that I had made considerable progress towards abstraction and imposing my ideas and phantasies on the subject, but it all did not make use of the particular qualities of watercolour as a medium. So far, I had used watercolour only to bring selected plain colours into the composition, but I missed qualities like transparency, running colours into one another, and accidental shapes. So I set out to develop a different approach for the final painting of the series.

Figure V

Before starting with the painting, I paused for some research on ‘watercolour figure drawing’ to see how others approached this. I was looking for works that looked like actual watercolour paintings, lighter and more subtle than what I’d done so far. My findings are summarized in this article.

When I had some guiding ideas how I could possibly treat my materials differently, I started with an underdrawing using a watersoluble graphite stick. This time, I made energetic, broad movements, trying to get the main traits of the figure right, but not worrying about details. I was following through a different visual perception of the photo which I had developed over the time working on the series. This is hard to describe. It works like a different reading of light and dark shapes, maybe similar to what happens when a familiar image is turned upside down and the brain tries to make sense of the unusual patterns that no longer resemble known objects. Actually my brain was switching between my standard perception and this new abstract perception, and I tried to focus on the abstract reading of patterns to guide my work.

My colour selection was guided by the idea of having a cooler colour for the background (Indigo blue) to make it recede, and warmer colours for the figure to bring it closer (Perylene Violet and New Gambogue yellow). I used a large round brush and worked fast, with broad strokes. The painting was quickly finished.

The difference was that I didn’t fiddle around with details, and painting felt more like throwing darts – first concentration to aim, then quickly execute, then pause to breathe. It was a very different experience of painting compared to how I usually work. It reminded me of the cliché of artistic genius, where the artist is celebrated for simple strokes that have high expressive value, but I just let myself go for it.

I think I slightly overworked the painting and the yellow turned out less friendly than I wanted it, but overall I’m quite satisfied with the result. It does look more like a watercolour painting and it’s energetic. I also captured elements of the abstract shapes I perceived. This might not make a difference to other viewers because after all the abstract shapes are just different interpretations of the same object. A possible path for extended work on this subject might be to further emphasize these abstract elements and make them more prominent and easier to detect for others. I remember that part of a quote: ‘Art (is not …), Art makes visible’. I’m not sure what this would lead to, but it could be an interesting task.

References

More Artists: Tamara de Lempicka
Some research on watercolour figure drawing