Life Drawing #1

Bella Romero

ARTIST STATEMENT

This piece was modelled from a life drawing model. Our teacher allowed us to do as we pleased with our free time, so I chose to use a medium we seldom used for an assignment – watercolor pencil. Watercolor pencil has always been a favorite medium of mine, and for this piece, I pulled colors blindly from my bag before getting to work. I find that this kind of exercise allows for very interesting use of color, and generally for a pleasant palette. It was a thirty-minute pose, so I did not have very much time to finalize a sketch before diving into the colors. Despite this, I was able to quickly discern where I would use each color. I felt that warm colors would make the skin feel natural and would make the yellow lighting appropriate. I countered the brightness of the warm colors with some deeper cool colors for the hair and eyes. Last but not least, I used water and a paintbrush to smooth over the lines of my watercolor pencils. This piece taught me a lot about thinking on my feet and making quick decisions about mediums and color use. It also helped me open my eyes to the fact that my studies on color theory had paid off.