When Abbing draws the model looks him in the eyes. While drawing his mind is open for anything that goes on in his model. The model is also open for the mood of the draughtsman, who sometimes draws angry and vehemently and sometimes quietly and concentrated. Both hold up a mirror to each other’s face. There is a short-lived symbiotic relationship. It follows that the drawing is more than a portrait of the model or a self-portrait of the artist; the person he creates represents a new reality. Abbing says that he finds this reality more beautiful and more attractive than the existing reality.

The fact that intuition plays an important role in Abbing’s drawings does not imply that he draws indiscriminately. On the contrary, it is the self-chosen fight between self-abandonment and control that makes his drawings interesting. Like in improvised music he sets up narrow constraints: for instance his drawing material, his paper, the size of his paper and his model remain the same for long periods of time. But within those constraints he is open for many influences whether they come from the model, things that happened earlier that day or hardly conscious recollections of events long past.