New drawing

[Alexandra Tyng]

Originally Posted by Thomasin Dewhurst

Alex, with the light I was trying to keep a bleached feeling to the back face, where the light erases the form to a certain extent.

I know you said you wanted to keep this as is, but I had a few thoughts for the future: What if you lowered the overall value slightly? This would push that figure back. You could still maintain a bleached look by lowering the contrast between light and shadow.

Originally Posted by Thomasin Dewhurst

I also felt that the dark.. . . needed to be kept rougher in order to have the fore-figure's details a contrast to it.
.

I like this idea a lot. You could keep the sketchy, rough quality and still do the above.

Of course there may be other much better ways.

I was just thinking that you often seem to concentrate your energy and attention on one figure in a composition, the focal point, and maybe spend a little less energy on the others. I think you could bring your work to a higher level if you gave more attention to working through the problems of the secondary figures. I am not referring to lack of detail, which I realize is a conscious decision.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Alex - thank-you for kicking me out of my complacency - you are so right, and I am essential so lazy and so reluctant to work the second figures because of the problems of each figure taking away from the others. I am not naturally a group figure painter, but I think this is because I haven't tried properly. You are such a master at group portraits and narratives! You have touched on a truth about my work - that my paintings seem more like studies rather than major paintings. I avoid making actual statements because I don't want to commit myself to an idea in case it isn't quite representative of my personality and self-image, but this is blocking me in getting to a new level. And I think I really would like to do a major piece on a theatrical theme with a real narrative and a number of legendary of classical theatrical figures doing different things - so do it, Thomasin!