Art Deco Nude 05-08-22, 2022

Corné Akkers  

This Art Deco Nude as theme is not something new, the materials are. The last decade I have been using mostly Bristol paper for my graphite pencil drawings. It has a high resolution and enables me to throw in lots of details, although not always needed. My highly abstracted cubist nudes are put on it because it allows you to create soft tonal gradients. Combined with my mechanical pen this paper is the carrier of an incredible output of hundreds of drawings. Therefor does it carry the bo-dy of my Roundism inventions.

By sheer chance I happened to stumble upon these new graphite pencils, recently offered by Fa-ber-Castell. Pitt Graphite Matt pencils they are called and my colleague Humphrey Brugman gave me some test samples. See what I could do with them. In the beginning I thought them to be funny. They act a bit sticky on Bristol paper I was used to, almost the feel of colored pencils. They didn't offer me the scratchy feel of regular graphite leads. For some time I left them be and continued to draw the old way. There is only one thing that bothered me though. Bristol and my 0.5 mm pen are a happy marriage but they act like a slow, lethargic yet loving couple. Lots of creative opportunities but the build-up is quite a job. Not that I dislike that. I like a good ol' planning and don't want to rush things.