Sketch Book for the Artist

Femmes Fatales

THESE DEVASTATING femmes fatales force back the onlooker

with their demure, elegant chic and svelte, muscular

aggression. Fashion and fantasy drawings invent prototypes

of ideals and perfection—be they for the catwalk or the

fast-paced pages of comic books.

Rene Gruau's bold gouache drawing of smoothly

swaying sophistication captures a brilliantly cut garment

and frames it with great dynamism in a white, studio-like

rectangle of paper. His model is outlined, as is Spider-Girl

opposite, and both share the power of scarlet and black.

Gruau uses starkly cut negative space (see pp. 58-59) and a

three-spoke balance of cuffs and cropped trousers to create

an almost flag-like emblem of power.

Spider-Girl leaps like an insect, diving to catch us in the

grip of her machine-like limbs. Fine lines drawn against

the building behind her echo the threads on which we have

all seen arachnids drop and hang. Airbrushed reflective

surfaces further amplify our perception of speed.

RENE GRUAU

Italian-French fashion illustrator who in his long

and esteemed career worked with many of the

greatest designers of 20th-century haute couture.

Gruau's highly distinctive drawings have appeared

in numerous magazines including Elle. Vogue.

Harpers & Queen, and L'Officiel de la Couture.

India ink and gouache This swish of confidence and style

enters the page turning everyone's head. Gruau's model

regally swans to the fore with cool pride, demanding our

attention with gesture and flair. She has been drawn with

brushes dipped into India ink and gouache, possibly over a

pencil outline. The black red, and gray pigments were applied

separately. Drying time in between applications ensured the

colors did not run into each other.

Composition Look how well this image is framed in pictorial

space horizontal line cropping the trousers below her

knee is parallel to the bottom edge of the image. The

outermost upright borders of her cuffs are similarly parallel to

the sides of the image, and tilted to the same degree. Space

above her head a little deeper than space beneath her

knees to give her gravity. Compare the compositional device

of cropped trousers here to the device of the white boots

beneath Van Dyke's study of armor on p. 158.

Illustration for Jacques Fath in

L'Officiel de la Couture

1949

RENE GRUAU

COSTUME