Pierre Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823)

I've discovered 3 great sites today, which I've added to my list of 'Other interesting sites' list. I initially found Jennifer Youngs site, an artist of similar age to myself, living in Richmond, Virginia in the USA, and what a great site and blog too! She has recently taken a class with Robert Liberace, himself a fantastic artist, and Jennifer has likened his work to that of Prud'hon's classic black and white work on blue paper. Already liking what I saw of Roberts work, I decided to look further at Prud'hon to see for myself how Robert had been influenced. And boy oh boy....did I like what I saw? Indeed I did!
If you havent realised already, I have a real fascination about drawing the human figure. And I emphatically state at this point, before I get teased big time over this, I'm not talking about just nudes here, they can keep their clothes on too! But the human body is an amazing and compelling subject for me and my initial look at Prud'hon's drawings left me spellbound. I saw an immediate likeness to Leonardo's style, especially in the actual poses, but there was something more and I wanted to find out what that 'more' was. Jennifer Young suggested a site by Rebecca Alzofon and an investigation she has done about Prud'hon's techniques, right down to the medium and paper he most likely used and how to reproduce it with todays resources. It makes for fascinating reading and whats more its easy to follow and understand too.

Trying to figure out my initial reaction, I think after some thought its the way Prud'hon has used hatching. This is more obvious in some drawings than others, but I like the way the hatching empahises movement.

Definitely something I want to try and emulate!

On a last note, I couldnt resist showing you this drawing of a Celia by Robert Liberace

And also this one, entitled Summer Sway, by Jennifer Young