The first of two closely related large-format mixed-media works — pencil drawing over a blue and yellow watercolor ground, with looping yellow marks throughout the background that create an energized, almost animated atmospheric field. Two figures stand in the composition: in the foreground, a taller figure in back-oblique view, the face in left profile clearly described — a young woman with long hair falling behind her, the body tinted yellow from the ground. Behind and to the right of the taller figure, a shorter figure — possibly a child or younger person — nestles against the back of the taller, the head resting against the back, the body also catching the yellow ground.
The two-figure composition is the most narratively suggestive in the large-format series. A taller and a shorter figure, back to viewer, close together — this reads as a parent and child, a protector and protected, two people whose closeness is physical and emotional. The looping yellow marks in the background give the scene a quality of something beyond the ordinary — not just two figures observed, but two figures in a state of heightened significance.
The mixed media approach — pencil drawing on a watercolor and pastel ground — is the large format's most integrated technique: the pencil line providing the figures' structure, the watercolor ground providing color and atmosphere, the looping yellow pastel marks providing energy and expressiveness. The three media work together rather than sequentially, the final image emerging from their combination.