Eye training - a series of cast drawings

Linda Brandon · 08-03-2006, 01:43 PM

Hi Paul, I'm delighted to see you posting this because I've just ordered a cast from Giust Gallery and, armed with the Barque book and some sharp-eyed artist friends willing to tell me where I'm "off", I'm getting ready to roll as soon as it gets here. (Usually I draw from a Planes of the Head cast but I'm feeling the need to expand.) Your drawing looks excellent to me. Steven and Mischa, it's good to know you both have had much experience with this, I hope you keep posting as well.

Paul Foxton · 08-03-2006, 03:58 PM

That's great Linda, hopefully we'll be able to compare notes as we go along. Please feel free to Bargue in (ouch!) on this thread with your own drawings.

I should point out to anyone reading this thread that I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing. Don't take this thread as a recommendation on how to do cast drawings, I'm learning as I go.

Today I started the second drawing. This shot is a work in progress at the second stage. Stage one is selecting, measuring and placing the marks for the main points on the form, stage two is literally 'joining the dots.' At this point I've been working for about five hours. Next I'll be making corrections to this stage before proceeding to refine the outline further, then laying out the shapes of the main tone blocks. At that point the schematic will be done and I can start the next one.

I got a new tripod today which means at least that I can get the camera to my eye level, but I'm still struggling with getting shots that look the same as what I see when I'm drawing. For reasons I don't understand, the drawing appears substantially larger than the cast. I know it's out, but it's not this far out. It's mostly down to my lack of knowledge about how cameras work I'm sure, but it just confirms my deep mistrust of these nasty mechanical contraptions.

Ngaire Winwood · 08-03-2006, 06:37 PM

Great Stuff Paul, where did you get your casts and how much?

Paul Foxton · 08-03-2006, 07:46 PM

Hi Ngaire,

I got them from ebay, this one and one of adonis which I haven't drawn yet. I think they were about

Paul Foxton · 08-05-2006, 04:19 PM

Here's a picture of the drawing after a couple more hours, all I've done is correct a few mistakes to the outline. The most obvious bit I got wrong is the length of the nose.

Steven, you asked me to shout out when I found myself in error, well here it comes: I've just realised that I'm not 90 degrees to my drawing board, so I have perspective on my drawing, with a vanishing point somewhere off to the left of me. The right half of the drawing is bigger than the left, or at least it will be when I look at it flat on. Does that make sense to anyone else or have I lost it?

I'm glad I decided to do these in stages, I can make sure I get this right on the next one. Being as I'm only going up to schematic stage with this one, I'm going to finish it off anyway.

It's funny, the camera was trying to tell me this all along, it's why I can't set horizontal guides across the image and have them line up on the shots, why my drawing always looks bigger than the cast in the photos. I suppose I should apologise to my camera now, but just a little bit.

Unfortunately the light is going now and I'm away for a few days from tomorrow, so I'll continue with this one when I get back.

Steven Sweeney · 08-05-2006, 10:55 PM

I thought it might be useful to illustrate what I think Paul has discovered about the distortion that can be introduced into a sight-size drawing if you are not sighting your measurements

Paul Foxton · 08-06-2006, 06:28 AM

Steven, that's exactly what I've done. Thank you for putting it so much more clearly than I could.

[QUOTE=Steven Sweeney] There