Louise Brooks – 21-07-23

Relaxing Times

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Louise Brooks – 21-07-23 is definite proof of a true and livelong obsession. She’s not in harm’s way though. My love for her is gentle and well, she’s out of my league anyway. In fact, she’s of my grandmother’s generation. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t live forever. She does and that’s why I continue to portray her, not in the least discovering this lovely photo. After the last one, being her portrait, I wanted to try something new. The majority of her pictures online show her iconic pose with the bob haircut and rigid gaze. This time I wanted to have her relax a bit. After all, the girl had a rough life. Why don’t I have her lay down this time?

Added Value

The reference picture was attractive because of its hefty tonal play. Just my piece of cake of course. The attire she wears is brilliantly shimmering just like the spindles of the couch she reclines on. The key question is what I could attribute to what wasn’t there in the first place? You have to know, artists are all about making attempts to add value to what already exists. To portray something by sheer copying isn’t fun at all. I want to contribute something without becoming pedantic of course. Scrutinizing the photo I soon realized I couldn’t make too much cubist abstractions, only a bit. That’s just how this played out, I guess. I think I managed to squeeze some abstract forms in. For example by letting her arm flow into the seat of the chaisse longue.

Attentive Watchers

Some clean dark linear structures also did the trick but what next? I found the quantity of my added value a bit scruffy. Then I came up with the idea of doing two portraits, tucked away in the drawing. The trick was not to have them stand out too much, just enough to be able to be spotted. I think attentive watchers will be able to detect them eventually. Why wouldn’t you?

Graphite pencil (Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt pencil 14B) drawing on Fabriano Ingres paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers