:: Master Copy Sketch ::

To the left is the master drawing of  Michelangelo Buonarroti's Study for Battle of Casina
and to the right is my copy

One of my favorite books on drawing is Juliette Aristies book Lessons in Classical Drawing.  I've owned this book for a couple of years and recently decided to re-read it and work the exercises along the way.

The object of the first exercise was to become familiar with governing lines and directions.

She suggests picking any master to copy. Because I was anxious to start I didn't want to spend my time looking for a drawing to copy so I chose the same drawing that she did in her example.

I taped the copy of the Master Drawing to the left of my blank paper I was going to use for my copy of the master drawing.  I needed to mark lines at the top and bottom to indicated the scale of the drawing.  Then I needed to take a best guess at a single angle direction to see if I can account for some of  the movement of the work.  I don't think I would have seen the same angle Juliette saw if I hadn't used the same Master Drawing she did as my reference and her show an example of this.  Maybe if I were to attempt another I could use my own judgement better.

The second step was to place a few governing lines to get an overall shape to the gesture.

The next step was to formalize the lines into coherent shapes … and from here it was easier to see that my sketch was looking more closely resembling the original.

The last step was to tone the large planes of shadow to separate them from the light shapes..

Overlay 

After I completed my copy I could tell something wasn't quite right about my Master Copy even though I re-measured a couple of areas I still couldn't find my mistakes.

Out of curiosity I taped the master drawing to a window with bright light behind it and laid my copy over it to see where I had made my mistakes.  Ahhh,  now I could see exactly where I had made my mistakes.  The upper torso was good but the bottom half I had not measured correctly at all.  You can see where I should have drawn  by the red Sharpie lines I've drawn where I the original drawing was.  The hips were off as well as one foot … and the leg that is down was off a lot.

I was surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise.  Something about measuring, squinting to see the values better and taking my time really felt good to me.

I'm going to continue working on my drawing skills in a number of different ways.  I've been  doing  some simple daily sketches and working on Bargue Plates and also I plan to continue working through the exercises in this book.  All good stuff.

:: October 25th, 2015 - International Artists Day ::

Tomo

International Artist Day


Happy Birthday Picasso….


Have you heard about International Artist Day and that its celebrated on Picasso's birthday?


I hadn't until earlier this week when Artbiz coach Alyson Stanfield mentioned it in a Facebook post.


Come to find out for over a decade International Artist Day has honored the contribution artists have and are making to society. On IAD, October 25, take an artist to lunch, or buy that painting that's been haunting you for the last month. Visit a gallery, or go to the symphony or art museum.  Maybe you’ve had your eye on a painting or sculpture, or feel that your garden could use sprucing up with a one of a kind wind-chime. Whatever the case, International Artist Day is the time to get out and bring a little beauty into your home. If you’re the creative sort, IAD can be an excuse to finally get back to your craft and bring something personal into your life through artistic expression.


 How will you celebrate the day?  Me …. I think I'll go work on my drawing skills.

:: What's the Value of that? ::

Sometimes when I become frustrated with my work or simply lack motivation I enjoy going back to the basics.  There is something rewarding in rendering a small wooden cube, a value strip or a sphere using graphite, charcoal or oil paint and making the objects look like what they are intended to look like.  

In Juliette Aristides book Lessons in Classical Drawing she writes, "Learning to separate light from shadow is an early and critical step for the creating of a strong image."

Every time I attempt to execute these exercises I'm surprised by how much more I recognize the value change.

Although I do feel they are better than the first time I tried them.  I always enjoy the practice of looking at the different values in simple objects. I will continue to practice the skill of observing and recording the values I see. Practice makes perfect, right?