Sunday, March 2, 2008

Figure Drawing Charcoal



Cari Amici,
What possesses me to share these images escapes me. I am the queen of macchiata (blotchiness). What you see here is my work-in-progress of my figure drawing in charcoal of the Italian model Valentina. I wrote about her transfer to the Umbria paper on this blog on 24 Febbraio.

Here you see that I have not only established my three main tones, but now I have begun to work the darks to get the figure “to turn” (look 3-dimensional) and try for a movement of tone in my background. Hence the blotchies. Apparently, as I have heard many people here in Florence, Italy, say, I draw like a sculptor. I exaggerate. I have yet to find this truly objectionable, but it does mean that I have to do more work. If I would simply lay in the tones correctly, I could create more art.

Instead, I exaggerate and then must settle it down. I justify my behaviour by explaining that I do not have access to the model for nearly enough time and need to make these notes to myself of what I have observed and chosen to do about those observations. But then, we all justify our behaviour, si?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

sweet heart you have this nailed.it took my breath away here on the puter screen. it has to be absolutly smashing to see the real thing. draw like a sculptor? i think if someone said that about me i would think i have arrived. as artists we are always trying to better our work, thats why we are artists. we are never satified and that is as it should be. babe your the greatest...Rodney