Two Knightsopen acrylics on gessobord
6in x 6in
I was reading about drawing from casts a few months ago. The author suggested spending lots of time in the school's cast library to learn...well, I don't go to art school, so I don't have a library. But later on it did occur to me that I could use chess pieces. Ideally, I would be able to find extra large pieces, but for a quick Friday night painting, the mini-cheapy ones worked.
This was a good exercise for me...finding that balance between detail and looseness. Interestingly, achieving both of them is equally difficult...rendering detail takes an observant eye and interpretative skills...being loose and free takes a creative "otherly" vision and intuition about when enough is suggested. I hope to continue learning the balance.
6 comments:
Very effective knights. You've got good contrasts in them.
If you have access to art museums where there are travelling exhibits you can often find sculpture to work from. You can even draw sculptures in public places. Its not really any different than cast, except that casts are usually light coloured and just portions of the human or animal body.
The other place to find good sculpture to draw is inside older churches. I've found both museums and churches are usually quite amenable to artists sketching or taking some reference images.
I love those generous, interpretive strokes Rose. Really interesting piece.
+1 to what Jeanette said. I used to go down to the National Gallery practically every weekend when I was in college to sketch all the sculptures.
Fabulous, Rose! Deliciously loose and just look at all that paint!
I read recently that you should only put in enough detail to make the subject recognisable leaving something to the viewer to add for themselves in their imagination.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement and advice. I don't get much chance to draw in public with my commandos ever under foot, but you are right, there are more opportunities out there for me to pursue...I'll be thinking about where I can find some sculpture...
I think you have done a fine job getting the balance between detail and looseness. Just enough detail to figure out the shapes and shadows and loose enough to make the painting seem a bit more alive. :)
Pretty knightly! Nice work, ditto on the paint and strokes. I'm learning from you.
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