Ink Studies for Eve, legs
Continuing showing the studies for Eve. The two drawings are ink and white chalk. The directional lines came about by how I would massage her legs with my thumb. I think you will get a good sense of this, the caressing of the forms, by seeing the darker parts around both inner knees, and lower calves.
You will notice that in the painting's detail the legs are veiled in mysterious darkness, and that you have to slightly strain your eyes to focus on the details. There are few subtle things here. The spot light is hitting her butt, and from their it dissipates, like spot lights do, so that by the time the light travels to the ground it has dimmed considerably. Secondly, the mysterious lighting makes us adjust our eyes, like when you have gone from a lit hallway into a darkened room, you have to adjust your eyes, often for a minute or two before you become more accustomed to the darkness. These creates a physiological experience especially in contrast to her lit butt, your eyes have to work really hard to see in the shadow and when they move to see the highlights on the butt, they get a shock of the brightness. The eyes are working as if they are seeing reality, not the flat painted surface.
Have you ever sighed while taking a shower? As our bodies surface heats up with the warm water, our blood vessels migrate from deeper inside to move towards the surface, expanding while releasing the abundance of heat. This gives us literally a physiological rush, and manifests itself in emotional pleasure. This is the same when our eyes dilate and contract adjusting to light and shadow, with the light physically exciting the hell out of our eyes, resulting in an emotional high.
Michael Newberry, Idyllwild, 1/20/2021