A nude a week - and how I drew them

I have done hundreds of nude drawings and paintings, and I thought it was time to show them.  So this is the plan.  Over the next few weeks I will be publishing one of my nude pictures at least once a week and describing how  I painted that particular picture and adding a bit about painting nudes in general.  I hope you enjoy it.

Deeply relaxed.  Male nude, pastel on sand coloured paper 46 x 30 cm.  I like the way every aspect of the man is relaxed. Click on the picture so see it at a larger size.

How I painted this picture

This is a pastel I did at the group that meets in a village near where I live.  It was done on sand coloured paper using black, white, grey, soft brown and red-brown pastels.

You can see the curve of the spine from the model's bottom, up and over, along the neck and sweep down the arms with fingers dripping like molten wax. This is what I saw first and retained it throughout painting this pastel.

I used the colour of the paper as the main colour which united everything. You can see the colour of the paper coming through the flesh tones of the buttocks and where the light red-brown has an open quality because of the vertical grain of the paper.  I use a piece of pastel on its side pressing more on one end to to get the blending effect.  You can smudge with your fingers but it doesn't give the same sparkle.  Where the model's hair shone bright, I enhanced it with dark shadows beyond and did the same with his left hip.

How I paint nudes (part 1 of 7?)

What I'm interested in is the light and shade, the colours of the flesh, the body shape. the anatomy, bones skin and muscle  The way the neck sits on the body and the head on the neck, the fullness and the boneyness, the shadows and the texture of the cloth the model is sitting on.
I studied life drawing one day a week as a student at Liverpool art college.  We studied anatomy from a book and were tested on it in the first term.  At first I thought "I hate anatomy"  But thanks to the one day a week life drawing sessions and the skeleton hanging in the corner it has been part of my life ever since.

More soon with another picture drawn or painted in another medium.  By the way I hope to mount an exhibition of these paintings soon so if you can help it would be great.  Anyway please get in touch and if you feel you would like to buy any of the pictures, make me an offer.  We can probably do business.