November - Week 2

Written 17/11/2025, Updated 18/11/2025

Sketches based on her work

Like every other month, I started my artist research by drawing some felt tip pen sketches of some of B Prabha's work.

Sketch of 'Fisherwoman' by B Prabha — She looks rather sad

Sketch of 'Two women' by B Prabha — The exaggerated proportions look strange here, but I do like that they draw the eye

Sketch of 'Mother and son' by B Prabha — I think I may have overdone the expression here

Sketch of 'Flowers' by B Prabha — Wish I had emphasised the boldness more

Sketch of 'Wind' by B Prabha — I think I managed to capture the force and severe angles

Sketch of 'Sorrow' by B Prabha — I'm happy that I was able to capture the bold posing from this one

So, her artwork (besides the flowers) all focuses on women experiening *something* - be that a certain emotion (generally sadness) or the force of the wind, or simply the experience of wearing a sari.

Other things I noticed are:

The backgrounds have very little detail, often just loose brushstrokes
The women genderally have vulnerable/sombre expressions
The bodies are very elongated (especially the limbs and torso)
Despite the simple backgrounds, the lighting of the pieces is very important on the human figure.
She uses a limited colour palette

I must admit, despite being over halfway through the month, I am still feeling a bit flummoxed on what I could draw from in my life to somewhat evoke something similar. I very much want to paint a woman from my real life, and there are several I can think of who I could ask but I worry that whatever I do will be too 'artifical'. This feels different to April (Gwen John) because those women felt more 'posed' or when it was something captured in the moment it wasn't focused on their emotional state. I will have to mull this over.

Specific artwork I will be focusing on

Fisherwoman, 1969

A stylised oil painting of a woman with a basket of fish, her skin is lit with blue light, making the dark brown look more purple

Why this one?

I really like the lighting, it is so moody and it really helps evoke the melancholy the fisherwoman is feeling. I will say, that while this piece will be my primary influence I will also be taking things from 'Sorrow' as well as I also REALLY like that piece (in particular the strong posing) but 'Fisherwoman' is more in her established 'style' than 'Sorrow' is. So although I'm still not sure on 'what' I will be painting this month, I do at least have the inspiration to act as a guide for me.

Sketches based on specific artwork

This month, I decided to do a larger pen sketch to try to 'block' in the pose and then I did a colour pencil drawing to get a feel for the colours of the piece (and is much quicker than painting, and I was in a bit of a rush I will admit).

Pen sketch of Fisherwoman — This looks very similar to the smaller one but with more detail

Coloured pencil sketch of Fisherwoman — Its interesting how the background affects how the skin looks, as it looks like alien skin here rather than lighting. something to practise!