Rough surf day at the beach. This was a rough painting to accomplish. I’d say it isn’t what I intended but I worked it to where it was as done as it was going to get. More work on it would overwork the pastels which already had so many pigment layers that they were falling to the floor. That’s pastel saturation.
The perspective that was tough was the girl in the pink thong bikini. When I looked around for subjects to paint, she was at complete foreshortening. And with that tiny pink crack cover, she was amazing to draw. It was a challenge for me because it was just concentric shapes overlapping more luscious concentric shapes.
The rough part for me also was to not turn a near nude into a beach porno piece! There is a very delicate boundary line between art nudes and porno nudes. I’m not sure if there is a clear separation. But the one factor has always been in showing respect for the naked person lending us their form for our visual practice. I have been trained since childhood to handle this appropriately.
The other rough part of this was taking back-up photos. I believe it would violate sanctity of the person if I posted her photo. I can draw and paint visual images with a real likeness leaving no doubt of the personage. I decided to not be that detailed.
So after drawing it and painting it over and again, with the other near nude man off on the distance, also with concentric circles on him mostly on his big belly, I realized this was going to have to stay rough.
The sanded paper was a Kitty Wallis archival sanded paper. It has a medium gray paper color and middle grit amount. This was an older piece of paper which held some creases. The creases added to the overall rough quality to this piece.