OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Expanse, Project 5, Exercise 4
For this exercise I was asked to look at statues outside in streets and parks etc and make a series of studies based upon them. Due to Covid restrictions, as well as having some personal issues and time restraints with sick parents, I have completed this exercise using a range of real life resources, as well as online photography resources and a tutorial book by Giovanni Civardi.
I wanted to depict statues using a range of media and techniques and so used graphite where I did in-depth shading, more simple line drawings and some sketches in between. I also used brush pen to create some simple gestural sketches of statues.
I’ve included a bust of Einstein that I completed last year just before I started this course and whilst I know that this course requires work to be completed during the duration of the course, I wanted to show a technique I had used where I had created a grid first to create more accurate representations.
I wanted to include some well known statues/sculpture, so included Rodin’s The Kiss. I have recently been studying atelier style art and the Bargue plates used in this school of art and as a result I chose to depict the Belvedere Torso, which is a key component of this study.
I also chose to crop in on one specific area of a statue to create a more focused study. I also chose to draw a study of a statue head from a Michelangelo statue called Moses.
I already really enjoy figure work and portraiture and I found these statue studies to be immensely satisfying. I learnt a lot about foreshortening that I anticipate I can use in the next section of this course. I have already been undertaking some figure studies in preparation for this next section and these statue studies added to those perfectly.
References:
Civardi, Giovanni. (2014), ‘The Art of Drawing: Drawing Statues’. Tunbridge Wells. Search Press. ISBN 978-1-78221-315-4
Sturley.art 