Over the past few weeks in my life drawing groups at Hush Art Group in Clitheroe and Life Drawing Blackburn I have been experimenting with layering figures on top of each other and using negative space to create these graphic images- the drawings can be turned in different directions and as you look different figures and poses are revealed.

I have found this is a great way to utilise shorter poses- we often do 1, 3, 5 and 10 minutes sketches and this allows you to create very simple shapes and outlines, so I decided to try making a more uniform image from the shorter poses.

The choice of Red and blue was not for any special reason, I just have a selection of pencils that have red on one end and blue on the other end – these are great when doing shorter poses as you don’t have to mess around finding different coloured pencils!

I think I might try and develop this process further, I would like to find a way to translate this style of images into a painting, and also to experiment with different colours and more true-to-life representational forms.

I am inspired by the artist Daniel Ludwig who creates fantastic paintings of figures using a range of different media. The paintings he creates are a mixture of classical artworks and abstract forms that are filled with shape and colour. He creates beautiful paintings where many figures or poses are combined into one image that makes sense- such as in the images below:

Hope everyone is having a lovely start to 2024, keep on making art and I’ll see you soon!