Project 5 Exercise 4 Statues

The Aim

• Draw statues outside
• Decide what interests you about the particular statue.
• Draw from interesting views

The Exercise

Unfortunately the afternoon I had set aside to find some statues to draw (I needed to travel a fair distance for this) was pouring with rain. As I had a deadline looming I took the liberty of drawing statues inside at home instead. I have a ¼ size human skeleton model which lives in the hall next the stairs, When coming down the stairs you have an interesting view-point of the skeleton, with much foreshortening from the cranial end. I have often thought this would be an interesting angle to draw it from –  so I took the opportunity.

I placed it on the kitchen floor so that the kitchen tiles gave it some structural context, and sat on the table looking down at it. I used compressed charcoal to make the image, which was a bit of a mistake as it became quite fiddly (I was only working in my A4 sketchbook. I also had to stop to make tea in the middle of doing it which did interrupt my flow and consequently made a bit of a mess of the legs! However I enjoyed the challenge and still think it is an interesting view of a skeleton!

Foreshortened Skeleton in compressed charcoal

Plaster cast of Greek Statue in pencil

My second statue was a diminutive plaster-cast of some historic (Greek possibly) statue of a lady, complete with missing head and limbs. The whole statue only stands about 7 inches high but it has lovely folds in the drapery that cast shadows around her form. using a 4B pencil I made an A4 sketch of the cast standing on a box at eye level. I really liked how the white plaster stood out from the darker wall behind. The cast was lit from above. On reflection I should have lit it from the side to increase the contrasts.

I recognise that these were quite rushed exercises and this shows. I should have done both drawings on a larger scale – I found it hard to correct marks in either drawing because they were too small. I haven’t got the proportions quite right in the statue – her right hip protrudes too much, the drapes sit too low and the shadow isn’t quite right on her upper left leg which has the effect of bending it in an odd way. (There is no left foot on the statue!)