Mud Bath

I was reading a while back about Howard Pyle and his words of wisdom to young artists about inspiration and creativity. He suggested that during figure drawing classes and poses, don't just look at the model, but use the model as a springboard for a story, or something to that effect.

Anyway, here's a pose I dug up from my figure drawing class and placed the model in the part of a girl down on the farm looking to beat the heat by taking a mud bath with the piggies. I blame the inspiration for this particular setting on having seen "The Wizard of Oz" over the weekend, and having a bit of a laugh at the scene at the beginning were Dorothy, who apparently doesn't do any work, falls into the cleanest pig pen in the universe!

This took up pretty much all of Monday, but I was really into it, and there were a lot of different elements to it, getting the figure right, drawing the pigs, the reflection in the watery mud, the caking texture of mud, which was by far the hardest part. If I could go back and do it again, I'd redo that hair. I think I had a tendency to get lost in trying to draw hair strands rather than take the thing as a whole, oh well, live and learn.

I would have colored it, but things are getting a little busy around here. Maybe later. Enjoy!