Degas' Dancers Return to Black and White

After finishing a drawing of two dancers in a rare foray into color pastels, I turned over the cut out templates that I made for this drawing and traced them onto another sheet of paper to create

a second mirror image drawing. This one I completed in black and white. Since this drawing was the antithesis of the previous one pictured at right, I created an interior architectural setting, in contrast to the atmospheric treatment of the background in the color drawing. For my charcoal and grey pastel drawing I used both an opaque and a transparent style. The area under the arch was made with think smudges of charcoal allowing the white paper to show through in what could be a diaphanous curtain. The floors, walls and dancers were made more substantially solid with black and grey pastels. Overall I like the effect and will use it again.