Cast drawing

[David Clemons]

Personally, I'd rather not see a photo of the cast. In doing so we'd be comparing the drawing to a photo and not the actual cast itself. What we're left with here is evaluating the work as a drawing, for which it is a very nice example of, by the way.

As Mischa was saying there are some concerns with edges that stand out somewhat. There's a line at the top of the head between the hair and background that seems a bit darker than I'd expect it to be, for example.

[Lon Haverly]

Question for the artist: did you work from the original cast, or from a photo of the cast?

I am not convinced that studies in super detail are of great value, no more than I am convinced that blind gesture drawing, on the other extreme, is of great value. The one locks the eye-hand into a contract with the subject. The other makes no connection between the eye-hand at all.

Somewhere in between is where the time should be spent. I was doing cast drawing from early childhood at art school. The purpose was not to extract photo-detail, but to learn about light and shadow, form, line, blocking-in and shading. We would draw the image, then it would be turned in a different angle, the lighting changed, and we would draw it again completely different.

We seemed to have lost the intent of cast drawing. It was less about photo-realism, and more about light and shadow, form, line, blocking-in and shading, and how all that changes with the same piece.

I was never told that extreme realism was the goal. Perhaps you were. May I suggest that if that is the case, you have arrived. Any critiques of form on this drawing is sheer nit-pickery.

[Sharon Knettell]

I think like any method of teaching, there are sheep and lions.

Many gifted people studied that method, many did not.

Picasso and Van Gogh both did. http://www.e.millner.btinternet.co.u...urriculum.html

[Sharon Knettell]

Lon,

I think this would be a wonderful discussion on the Cafe Geurbois section.

You could post your views coming from a lifetime in art and see what other people's experiences and opinions are. I think this artist has been 'critiqued' enough and now it is going into the value of the method.