Learning from Great Drawings

Copy of Luca Camiaso's  'Christ leading the Calvary' 

Copy of Luca Cambiaso's ' Group of figures'

The sketches are my attempts at copying of drawings by Italian artist Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585) from the book 'Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters" by Robert Beverly Hale. The book analyzes 100 drawings and defines figure drawing fundamentals. The book looks into the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rodin, Goya, Rembrandt and others and shows in seven chapters  how these artists utilized basic concepts of line, light & planes, mass, Position Thrust or direction, and Artistic anatomy.

I have always had trouble with thinking in terms of simple masses and shapes when sketching.  I am hoping copying like this will help me see light values and seeing the simplest geometric forms in everything.  I noticed in the book there are block like, cylindrical and spherical styles of sketching. The book explains: " You soon realize that there are very few basic shapes in the universe and that there is a geometric relationship between the most diverse objects. the sea is but the skin of a sphere and is related to the spherical head of a pin."   I have had the book for many years but only recently decided I will start copying the various drawings in different styles to get practice -especially on those days when I have limited time and no idea for a daily sketch. 

Have you copied for practice master drawings or paintings? do you find the exercise useful learning tool? Love to hear your experiences! 

Sacred Design

Sacred Design  Photography by Meera Rao 

Creative Variations

Day 1: plotting shapes and values

Cyber follower to real time with artist Myrna Wacknov - I am back from a wonderful week of Myrna Wacknov's workshop "Variations" :)  It was really special to finally meet her after following her blog, admiring her creativity for a few years now! I was immersed in five days of fast paced exploration of creative interpretations of the portrait. Everyone worked with the same instructor provided black and white image and it was amazing to see the 'variations' at the end of each day as each participant chose different design elements to emphasize and brought her own talents, interpretations and style to Myra's instructions, prompts and guidance.

Day-1 was spent designing the shapes of the image with a modified contour drawings, creating a uniform grid for original image and then creating distored grids to reshape the image.We simplified  lines and connected shapes. We then experimented with various value patterns.   At the end of the day we each had atleast one sketch to work on day2 with shape+one other element (roll of dice) and another to work with value+a different design element. She also had 24 combinations of color chords on index cards and luck of the draw determined what colors we would be using. The color chords had Analogous, compliments, triads, spilt compliments to choose from. The seven elements (line, size, shape, direction, color, value and texture), decisons about dominance, relationships (unity, harmony, dominance, contrast, repition, variation, gradation, and balance) was to create a mood for the paintings.

Day 2 AM: Shape+texture

Day 2 AM : Shape:  The roll of dice resulted in texture being the second element for my exercise. The colors in my card were split compliments yellowgreen, red and violet. The textures were a lot of fun to paint - I  sprayed  alcohol, used oil pastels, stencils with paint and some gesso, some colored pencils to create the various textures.

Day2 PM: Value+lines

Day 2 PM : Value:  This time roll of dice for secondary element gave me lines along with complimentary colors yellow and violet. I sketched with masking fluid and incorporated the saved white lines into the design element. I used various yellows and violets to bring out the values in the painting. I had a piece of netting from a potato sack that I dabbed paint over to bring lines in the background. Splattering white liquid acrylic paint with tooth brush gave a cool look for the sunglasses.

Myrna is a treasure trove of ideas. She freely shared her collection of samples,  her paintings, clippings and tips with us throughout the week.  I loved her critiques of all the paintings.  The other participants were all accomplished painters from Potomac Watercolor society and it was a treat to watch them in action.  Myrna Wacknov has posted her demos in her blog . Watch for more postings in my blog and hers.