Between the lines

A3: Charcoal and wash

I was more deliberate about the design of this than I usually am when drawing one pose on top of another.  I included straight lines suggested by the interior of the studio as a deliberate contrast with the organic flowing contours of the model. By extending washes into some of these more abstract grid lines I was aiming to break up the composition further and increase the general ambiguity and transparency and the blurring of apparent boundaries between body and space, self and other…

Spot the pattern

A3: Charcoal on paper

I trained as a textile print designer and created fabric designs for fashion houses for several years after I graduated.

A print design on paper has to give an idea of how it would repeat across the fabric when it’s printed, so a finished design will look as if it were cut out of  a larger area and give a sense of how the various motifs will recur.

This drawing has a leg going off the right-hand side…and coming back in on the left side, so that if you put the two edges together they would join up to complete the leg, just like a repeating design for a printed fabric.

As I was drawing the leg going off to the right I realised the space on the left was the perfect size and shape to contain the rest of the leg and feet…and it amused me to think of this image as a print design…very up-market and chic…maybe for a top couturier…

So now the question is…would you wear it? Assuming you could afford it of course ; )