Nude Apres Shower

Nude Apres Shower Stage One

This painting was the result of a two session sitting.   At the initial session when we decided on this pose, it looked like an "easy-to-hold" pose for the model.  After all it was sitting, but it turned out that this was a difficult pose.  The majority of pressure was on the right leg.    Our model is quite dedicated and was determined to hold the pose anyway and she successfully completed the challenge, not only for one three hour session, but a second three hour session a week later.   A big thank you to her.

I particularly liked this pose because it seemed more natural, as if the person was in the process of getting out of the shower, toweling off, or perhaps applying lotion.  The substrate for this painting was a smooth 16" x 20"  gessoboard, that had been toned with enough fleshtone color to give the smooth surface some tooth.   

I "drew" in the armature with transparent oxide brown.  Using all my measuring tools I modeled the figure.   I used excess paint which I could then wipe off with a papertowel to get an accurate figure drawing.  The fleshtone ground underneath provided a ready made skin hue.  I didn't rush this part and had to keep stepping back and re-measuring.  It was tempting to launch ahead with color, but I have found that, for me, that usually backfires.  I worked cool fleshtones with green oxide and alizarin crimson.  At the end of the first day, I had a decent drawing in paint, but that was too light and too green, as can be seen in Stage One photo.



Nude Apres Shower - Final

On the second day, I immediately washed over the green fleshtones with alizarin crimson.  I also  reapplied a dark background to redefine the figure.   The figure was backlit from my angle in the room.   The right inner shoulder was in shadow, and was the background for the facial profile, a nice contrast with the forehead, nose, lip and chin which all picked up some light.   The brightest edge of all was the rim light on the right shoulder hence it has the cleanest edge with the brightest light.   All other highlights were made less bright, and all other edges were made fuzzier.

The final touches that I made back in my studio were to add the stool she is sitting on as well as an understated bottle of lotion and a towel, completing the theme of "après shower."