9×12″, Charcoal on Bristol Paper
In my piece, “The Windup”, I tried to capture the intensity of the battle between a pitcher and batter. There is nothing more confrontational than two players facing off with the sole determination to out-perform the other. This is the reason the subject is staring at the audience. It communicates the effort and intensity that goes into every pitch. I chose charcoal because it gives a deep range of lights and darks which lent itself to the dramatic lighting of this scene. It was also capable of giving the smooth textures that I wanted for the glove. I was inspired by Caravaggio’s deliberate use of light and shadow to add suspense in his pieces, but also the intentional faces in the sculptures of Bernini. I have depicted the moment before extreme action in a somewhat idealized manner just as his “David” and “Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius”