Monday
Oct262009
Winged Victory Drawing Demo
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 8:08PM I made this 8 minute movie of my 10-hour drawing of my cast statue "Victoire de Samothrace" to demonstrate the optical block-in method.
1. The line drawing is all straight lines.
2. The shadow side is first filled in as all one even tone.
These two methods are difficult to adhere too, but if you can do it they address the main difficulties in drawing: capturing accurate proportion, and understanding light and shadow.
Materials:
- Strathmore 400 drawing paper (not ideal for charcoal)
- vine charcoal, hard medium, and some soft (sharpened very sharp with sandpaper)
- kneaded eraser
- white "magic rub" eraser
- paper blending stump
- rough, cheap paper towel for blending
Winged Victory
charcoal on paper
18 x 24 inches
Reader Comments (13)
thank you for sharing this process, r.
Beautiful demo! Thank you Sadie for sharing.
That was fun to watch.
I have to tell you something hilarious.
First I love Jazz. (It makes you feel like a millionaire when all you have is 20 bucks in your pocket.)
Second, while I was watching the video and listening to the music, my wife was in another room doing homework. She heard the music and hurried into the living because she thought I was watching porn on the internet. She said it sounded like a bathroom scene. I died laughing.
I have no idea why my wife would connect that music to a bathroom scene or even porn in the first place.
I laughed for a good ten minutes.
Victorious drawing! But I miss to see your 'modell' once; was it a poster? Or a statue-copy? Greetings from Austria!
The model is my statue, a half-size cast of Victory, about 3.5 feet tall. If you look at the first shot again you will see it.
Thanks everyone! Gregory I love the story - the music is Nicholas Payton, Fleur de Lis from his album Into the Blue.
Great video, Sadie, thanks a lot for sharing it :)
Sadie, I'm amazed that you could make such a good drawing with a camera watching. I'd be too nervous.
Lovely demo - thank you!
Awesome, I watched it several times now and it still surprises me.
I wonder though why don't you start off with a mid tone grey rub-inn ?
Me encantó tu pintura...que pena que estés tan lejos!
Me facinaría ser alumna tuya.
Muchos cariños desde Chile!
Rosario.
Another thank you for sharing. Beautiful work! It helped me to understand what it takes to complete a drawing to see it from start to finish. Where do you find your casts?
Thanks Julie! This cast I got as a fluke, I happened to see it when a guy had if for sale outside his house! But the best (and really only) place to get quality casts is Giust Gallery (can't link from here, but google it and you'll find it).
Rene just realized I never answered your question about toning the background:
First, I start all my drawings with a highly detailed contour drawing that require a lot of erasing and re-working. So having a ground of charcoal just makes a mess long before I am ready to start with tone.
Second, I was filming this demo for my students at the Academy of Fine Art, and I was teaching them to very clearly define the light side versus the shadow side. If we start with tone everywhere, we can get confused about what is light and what is shadow.
Final note - I was using low-quality charcoal and smooth drawing paper because the Academy dictates the materials list for this class and that's what my students were using. So I wanted to use the materials they were using to show them how to build up values, because a lot of them were struggling with the materials.
wow great demo, thanks for sharing!