Desnuda

This is a half-hour pose from a workshop at Xchanges artists' co-operative in Victoria, Canada. Pat Martin Bates, who helped found the co-op exactly 40 years ago, told me yesterday there's no place left for a small art school in today's economy. By the same token, Xchanges definitely should not exist, but it does, and I am thankful for it.
This drawing immediately presented a foreshortening problem, as the model was recumbent with her head towards me. I drew it in early days at the co-op, over eighteen months ago, while I was still tackling the matter of hands and feet. No drawing is any good that does not grapple with these crucial parts of the anatomy. They are like the signatures of study. Both hands are imperfect here (the left hand and forearm elongated), and both feet unfinished, indeed the right one is hardly recognisable.
Other faults are in the ribs which are too heavily drawn, and the right nipple which gets lost in the blanket (causing my outspoken daughter to name the picture: "the woman with one tit").
Nevertheless, there is a ripple to the whole picture that appeals to me, and I branded it with the Spanish word for naked, desnuda.