Process: Artist Copy

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on my artist copy drawing of "Woman with Dead Child" by Kathe Kollwitz. When dissecting her artist's mark, I found it really interesting how she changed lines depending on the part of the figure. For example, Kollwitz used sharp, intense lines to depict the knee and foot but used stippling to depict the baby's head. At first, the change from lines to stippling was really challenging for me, but I ended up really liking the contrast, especially when the two techniques overlap.

Although the baby's face is mostly stippling, there are still a good amount of lines in the area as well. These delicate yet specific lines were really difficult for me to render, as it is incredibly challenging to have line accuracy while keeping the lines light. As I worked more and more, I realized the importance of having a sharp pencil; it really made a difference in keeping the lines light. In addition, I also found that stippling before adding the lines makes it feel more natural and less artificial to add the line details, overall improving the piece.