My rendition is in coloured pencil rather than gouache, I don't have a good range of gouache colours, but I'd like to get some and give it a try as it's heftier than watercolour but still light, quick and expressive. I've not done a bad job and I certainly enjoyed the process but it wasn't until I saw the drawing upside down that I realised my error in the left cheek bone and eye area of the naked woman.
Schiele's treatment of the women in his life is highly questionable but there is no doubt about his genius as a draughtsman, I could feel the swiftness and confidence of his lines as I laboured over my copy. There's an energy and urgency and his angles are exquisite.
I particularly love the way he depicts hands and shod feet. His hands are big and angular and so three dimensional that you can imagine the fingers moving as you look at them. It's the' three dimensionality' that impresses me about his shoes too, that little glimpse of sole and the angle of the heel or the merest suggestion of an instep with one beautifully placed line. Lovely.
And then there's the apparently paradoxical fluid jerkiness of his drawing style and the complex crudeness of the colour - he must have had a very loose hand. Copying also made me really notice how many colours there were in the flesh, red and green as well as yellow and brown.
The story of this painting and Schiele's life make it all the more striking.
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