Cast drawing

[Carol Broman]

Hello all,

I haven't posted in quite some time, but I thought I would share a cast drawing I recently completed. Its roughly 12" x 14" graphite pencil on paper. Any comments or critiques would be greatly appreciated!

Carol

[Sharon Knettell]

Carol,

It is hard to judge this without seeing a side to side reference.

The form seems well considered, however.

This is the classic way to get an understanding of forms and you should do more of them.

A good book to show you how to get into paint using casts is "The Practice and Science of Drawing", by Harold Speed.

It also goes into painting monochromatic heads from life.

You can find it at the Strokes of Genius Art Book Store. Just click on the ad on the right, it is under drawings.

[Mischa Milosevic]

Carol, this is a excellent study!! Good for you!

I do have some comets but first I agree with Sharon one must have the original to compare with. Still, being that you do have the cast you will be able to best judge if my comments are relative or not to your cast study.

First the value balance is real good but one thing the highlights could be considered for in the photo they seem to represent a plastic cast.

Under the chin in the shadow check if the reflected light is there and compare it to the shadow value.

The form is well done but the dark valued line on the outside edge could be something that needs to be adjusted here and there. I point to the top of the head and hair line.

The edge of the shadow that the cast makes could be considered. You will notice that the line of separation between darkest and soft around the dark shadow change. Some places it is softer than others but there is definite and distinct changes.

The detail is well done! I especially like the cracking on the neck. Michelangelo would be proud.

[Carol Broman]

Thank you for the comments!

Sharon:
I realized after I posted this that a reference photo would be a good idea, especially for critiques, however I don't have access to this cast at the moment. The photo of the drawing is also a bit 'bleached' out and doesn't offer much detail to comment on.
I recently purchased Harold Speed's books on painting and drawing, but admit I haven't had a whole lot of time to really get into them.
I know. I am a terrible student.

Mischa:
You are right about the highlights. I think the overall drawing is too light given the reference, and it seems to be my general tendency when rendering. I am currently working on a cast of Venus, trying to render things with more structural understanding instead of reacting to value shifts. Not much success there yet, but I will post when I get farther along!

Carol

[Ivan Zassavitski]

Carol,

This is a woderful pencil rendering job. You got that skill under your belt.

I think, you can even impove it by doing a little more work around the edges. In particular, areas of the outer hairline and inner "line" of the hair where it meets forehead.

And I agree with above posts that suppying original image would be helpful. In my experience, the value of cast drawing is in comparision.

Solid and beautiful work overall. I can tell you had fun with it.

Ivan

[Lon Haverly]

This drawing is all form, but very little of you. I would like to see these kinds of studies with some evidence that it as drawn.

I know there are many here that promote photo-realistic cast works, I just like to see more style, rather than just copying reality. We have cameras.

Good copying, tho.

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Lon Haverly

This drawing is all form, but very little of you. I would like to see these kinds of studies with some evidence that it as drawn.

I know there are many here that promote photo-realistic cast works, I just like to see more style, rather than just copying reality. We have cameras.

Good copying, tho.

Lon,

This is not photo-realist photo copying, but a basic exercise like learning the scales in piano. Degas and Sargent studied this way and they were quite individualistic to say the least. This was the basic foundation of the French ateliers taught many master painters.

She is not just copying reality, but training her eye on a non-moving object that has been done by a master, this, I think is a cast from Michelangelo's-"The Slave".

Many artists today have 'style', but not mastery.

[David Clemons]

Personally, I'd rather not see a photo of the cast. In doing so we'd be comparing the drawing to a photo and not the actual cast itself. What we're left with here is evaluating the work as a drawing, for which it is a very nice example of, by the way.

As Mischa was saying there are some concerns with edges that stand out somewhat. There's a line at the top of the head between the hair and background that seems a bit darker than I'd expect it to be, for example.

[Lon Haverly]

Question for the artist: did you work from the original cast, or from a photo of the cast?

I am not convinced that studies in super detail are of great value, no more than I am convinced that blind gesture drawing, on the other extreme, is of great value. The one locks the eye-hand into a contract with the subject. The other makes no connection between the eye-hand at all.

Somewhere in between is where the time should be spent. I was doing cast drawing from early childhood at art school. The purpose was not to extract photo-detail, but to learn about light and shadow, form, line, blocking-in and shading. We would draw the image, then it would be turned in a different angle, the lighting changed, and we would draw it again completely different.

We seemed to have lost the intent of cast drawing. It was less about photo-realism, and more about light and shadow, form, line, blocking-in and shading, and how all that changes with the same piece.

I was never told that extreme realism was the goal. Perhaps you were. May I suggest that if that is the case, you have arrived. Any critiques of form on this drawing is sheer nit-pickery.

[Sharon Knettell]

I think like any method of teaching, there are sheep and lions.

Many gifted people studied that method, many did not.

Picasso and Van Gogh both did. http://www.e.millner.btinternet.co.u...urriculum.html