Recent Drawing Exercises

Beethoven life mask cast study. Charcoal on Fabriano Ingres

Figure study, charcoal and chalk on Fabriano Ingres

For the past few weeks I’ve been back at Sarum Studio. It’s been good to get back to a routine and be working with other people. We are currently limiting the classes to 3 days a week, which suits me perfectly at the moment as I still have time to develop my own work alongside studies such as these.

While my main aim with the Sarum work is to further train my eye and advance my understanding of the subtleties and nuances of working from life, I also want to find my own style within this generally traditional discipline. I want there to be expression in my mark-making and evidence of construction. I admire the skill of artists who work their studies to the ultimate in smooth, refined finish, but I find these drawings can be a little anonymous too.

Sometimes of course 90% of the struggle has nothing to do with your over-arching objectives, and is simply a fight with your materials. This cast drawing is a case in point. Maybe a just had a dodgy sheet of paper, but I really struggled to get the charcoal to stick and build up in tone. Even soft charcoal just lifted previous layers and scarred the paper. Areas that I wanted to bring into focus with a crisp edge here and there, were impossible to apply successfully. In terms of likeness and the placement of features etc, this drawing is a pretty good representation of the cast. In terms of finish, I think it’s horrible. Onwards and upwards…?