Portrait of a Young Girl, 18×24, Conté on Paper, 10/12/2011
There is an art school in Lake Zurich, Illinois called Mainstreet Art Centre that holds open sessions periodically, and I was attending a few of them last year. The model that posed for us was quite young, probably about 15 years old, and she did a wonderful job. She also happened to be a student there in one of the youth classes. The portrait was done on Canson Mi-Tientes paper on the coarse side, and I used black and white conté to draw with. She is sitting in an armchair with a pattern on the upholstery with her hands in her lap. She is wearing a loose sleeveless blouse the exposes her décolletage where the heart shaped pendant on her necklace gently rests. Her hair is up exposing her neck and ears and she look intently to the viewer’s left. The rendering is low contrast with few highlights and few shadows, and the folds in her blouse along with the pattern on the chair are lightly sketched.
