Second attempt with drawing of Sarah

Charcoal in paper

When Jonathan asked me to do a charcoal portrait, I knew I wanted to try this portrait of Sarah again.  I started my measurements from the beginning just like in Angela's class.  I think I was much more on target and got a much better likeness of Sarah this time.  I also am learning to turn the form better with each drawing I do and the values really work on this one.  Love to see progress!!!

Third Cast Study

My third cast study is completed!!!!  I really think I am beginning to get value relationships now.  The perception of light and shadow is the most important skill in drawing and painting.  Value is one of the most important elements of realistic (or representational) drawing.  Values create the illusion of form and three-dimensionality. More specifically, the relationships between the values of an object make it look convincingly realistic.  If values are used unwisely or as an add-on, drawings will look overmodulated, muddy, and indecisive.  For more information on values check out this entry

http://georgetownatelier.com/tutorials/rendering-the-figure-part-

Charcoal on paper drawn from cast

The Slow and Silent Creation of Art

Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself.  When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you.  Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.  This is what great artists sense and succeed in conveying in their art.  Van Gogh didn't say: "That's just an old chair."  He looked, and looked, and looked.  He sensed the Beingness of the chair.  Then he sat in front of the canvas and took up the brush.  

Eckhart Tolle

Block-in Portrait study with Angela Cunningham

In October of last year I took another workshop with Angela Cunningham at the Townsend Atelier in Chattanooga, blocking-in the portrait from observation in graphite.  Angela's class emphasized understanding and practicing of the visual tools of blocking-in to develop measuring and shape-seeing abilities. Focusing on block-ins is a traditional academic training method that allows one to fine tune foundational skills for high accuracy.  Here is my block-in from the class with a value study I did following the class.  Of course, the portrait is not finished at all.  But this gives an idea of how accurate measuring in the very beginning creates a basis for a good likeness of the model.

Second Cast Study

Charcoal on paper drawn from cast

Casts are ideal for training the eye because they are white and completely still and they help a student to concentrate on shapes and values. Everything learned in cast work translates directly into drawing the figure and the portrait from life.   This is my second cast study....another 2-3 months work.

Cast Study in Charcoal

Studying cast drawing with Angela Cunningham helped me tremendously when I was ready to approach a cast study in vine charcoal with Jonathan.  This study was the very first one I have done concentrating on value relationships, shadow shapes, and edges.  This exercise teaches you to see the different types of shadow and also their shape and edges.   Some shadows have soft edges, some have hard edges and some are in between.  (To see a detailed description of values and how light shapes form check out this website:  huevaluechroma.com)

 Not only is charcoal harder to control than pencil, you have to make the lines match perfectly to the cast and you also need to match the values - the lights, the middletones and the darks. I spend about two and a half months on this one and learned a great deal.

Cast Drawing with Angela Cunningham

After copying the Charles Bargue plates (this is called working from the flat), an atelier student progresses to working from three-dimensional plaster cast, which is referred to as working “in the round”. In the cast drawing, the student begins to understand how controlled light falls across a three-dimensional form. In addition, this process enables a student to translate a three-dimensional object to a two dimensional picture plane, while maintaining the illusion of space and introduces the concept of “big form modeling.” This is where values and edges are introduced to the student and the concept of the ‘classical pattern of light on form’.

In April I attended my first cast drawing workshop presented by Angela Cunningham. This was a week-long workshop at Townsend Atelier in beautiful Chattanooga, TN.  Angela is an excellent teacher in the classical tradition. She studied at various art colleges in CA, ultimately earning her BFA in drawing and painting, with a minor in sculpture from Laguna College of Art and Design. After teaching in CA for a while, she decided to master the classical approach to drawing and painting and moved to NY to attend the rigorous Grand Central Academy of Art under Jacob Collins. Angela now lives and teaches in her new studio in Ashville, NC and at various other locations here in the Southeast.

               Here I am struggling with getting the tones and values correct after completing the block-in.