This 8 x 10" drawing on Canson mixed media board is a mostly fun thing for me - I drew it from an old drawing of a model, but then added the dark blue-green next to the orange glints in her hair just because I wanted to - artist's choice, right? - then added a grey and white version of my favorite wallpaper.
More on the wallpaper - I have been looking for that paper for ages for my entrance hall - the background is a medium green and it's probably from the 30s or 40s - good luck with finding any of that! Plus it would definitely not be strippable, so I'm actually toying with the idea of just painting the wall instead. Making those stripes will get pretty tedious, though.
Back to "Hmmm" - when I originally drew the model, she had briefly been looking at something going on to her right in the drawing group. It's been so long now that I don't remember what it was, but I was lucky to capture her while she was looking toward the "activity". That has happened a lot in my drawing adventures. My teacher, Priscilla Treacy, taught her students to get it down in three minutes - I don't mean every pore or detail, but the gist of the drawing. So, there have been many times when the model hasn't completely settled into her pose (and maybe gotten a little sleepy), that I've been able to grab that very first expression. Thank you Priscilla! In this drawing, I felt that the model was thinking critically about the conversation to her right, hence the title "Hmmm".
