Thursday, December 6, 2007

Sara – Big Form Modeling in Charcoal Drawing



Picking up where I left off:
The sooner I convey the illusion of form, the stronger my disegno (design or drawing). Allora, after I distinguish the main tone design, I want to start turning the form with Big Form Modeling. Like other drawing systems, I will work large to small. This means that my first objective is to depict the entire figure as a three-dimensional form. Then I will do the same, within the context of the larger form, for the smaller forms, such as an arm.

I tend to like the brush, thus far, for things such as subtle blending. I get plenty of dust as I sharpen my charcoal sticks against a sandpaper-covered board (a small cutting board or a ping pong paddle work well – something flat and strong). So, I dip my brush into the dust and work my way from darks to light. How quickly I go from dark to light depends of the form I am creating.

In today’s images, I am showing you the beginning of Big Form Modeling on the figure’s head. The first image shows the head as a pattern of light paper with generalized dark shapes. The second shows that I have started to indicate that the head is an egg-like form, becoming darker closer to the bottom of the face, which is further away from the light source above the figure. I can do Big Form Modeling from side to side, as well as vertically.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm worried that your going to get me to painting LOL. Keep on trucking girl...Rodney

Kristy Gordon said...

Absolutely beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the description and also showing photos of big form modeling.

I'm wondering how the same concept could be applied in a grisaille painting of a cast (black and white). I can see 4 values would be required to get to the same result you got at in charcoal.

1 value for the background, 1 for the cast shadow, 1 for the contained shadows and 1 for the halftone. The only difference is that the white of the paper is left exposed for charcoal as our lightest lights.

How is that dealt with in painting. Are the lightest lights also "dead colored", painted flat in a mid-value of the light plane?

Kelly Borsheim Artist said...

Hello Anonymous,
This method of drawing is taught by the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. First pencil, then charcoal, grisaille, and finally, more colors in paint.
The terms you have used lead me to assume that you know more about this method than I do. I have not started to learn how to paint in this way yet. However, their program is perfectly designed to teach this process and learning charcoal in this way is really an aid to learning to paint without the variables of color and chemistry.
It is a worthwhile program and if interested in this process, you should consider enrolling in the school. I doubt you would find Florence unattractive either!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kelly. My name is Raffaele. I don't have a Google account, which is why my message got posted as anonymous.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I am aware of the drawing technique taught at the Academy. I think we are at the same level in the program and was hoping you could provide me with some insight on the grisaille/black and white oil painting method. I would love to go to Florence, but can't afford to, which is why I asked you for help.

All the best,
Raffaele