In the Shadows

"Frost" by Alexander Kanoldt was one of my other favourite German Expressionist pieces at New Walk Art Gallery and the one that I invested the most time in during my visit. I sat and drew this piece for four hours whilst at the gallery and for me it conveys a real sense of loneliness and isolation. I see a deserted farming village full of shadows and mystery. The atmosphere conjures up images of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", or George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead".

Something which always brings me back to this piece, and that has stayed with me for over fifteen years is the technique that I employed for the beams of light cascading down from the street-lamps; I took an eraser and carved through my sketch with it - this technique was made more effective by any smudges that interwove with the beams. Prisma highlights this in the variations that I created, it gives a really organic and natural feel to the light.

The original image is taken from germanexpressionismleicester.org