Cast Drawing

Michelangelo Mouth, 2009, graphite and white chalk on paper, 12 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches

This fall I started working with Robert Zeller on cast drawing. These exercises will help me understand proportions and values better. I started with a simple drawing of a mouth, a cast from one of Michelangelo's sculptures. There's a system to this kind of drawing. before shading begins, all the elements of the drawing have to be in place. Scale, relationship of shapes and their place in the drawing, shadow shapes, all of these have to be outlined through a careful slow study of lines. Shading begins, but also there are rules to this part.

David's Eye, 2010, graphite and white chalk on paper, 17 x 14 inches

After the mouth we moved on to another Michelangelo cast, this one being David's eye. This was a bigger challenge, but through careful looking and slow drawing I got a nice product. So where do I go from here, now that I surpassed this challenge? You move on to the next bigger challenge!

On Tuesday I started working on another Michelangelo cast drawing, and this one will not be easy! Giuliano Duke of Nemour, from the Medici tomb, is my next task; one which was supposed to be done in paint but because I thought it too difficult, I thought it would be best to draw it instead.

This is a close up of my little friend I will be putting down on paper. I really hope I don't mess this up, since he is too beautiful to do so.
So far this is what I have. A few lines indicating angles and shapes, but this will change next class as I spend more time with the sculpture.