Last night, in basic drawing, I learned a little lesson. Now, first, forgive the low-quality image, this was taken with my cell phone. Does the drawing look a little large to you? Well, it is... and this image shows the beginnings of my corrections. In sight-size drawing, the artist draws the object on a one-to-one scale. The result is highly accurate and realistic drawing. The lighting, object, drawing and position of the artist are the same every time. You'll notice a dark vertical line down the center of the cast. This is the plumb line (dark, weight string) aids in creating accurate measuring. Looking at my drawing, the positioning of the eye, chin, mouth are pretty accurate. Take a look at the width measurements, and you'll see they're off. Left eye to right eye--good, width of left eye-good, width of nose shadow to right side of cast--good, and then take a look at the left ear to the nose shadow--bad, left edge of the hair to right eyebrow--bad. When I say bad, I mean a good half an inch bad. So, I spent the entire class correcting my drawings. My instructor, Kim Sternitzke, explained that in addition to measuring vertically and taking width measurements from the plumb line out, I also needed to be taking measurements from different points of the cast and looking at the relationships of everything, not just the width of the eye or the angle of the chin.Here is the drawing after about two hours of corrections:
I still have a lot of correcting to do and a ways to go on this cast but I feel good about the foundation. If you'd like to learn a little more about sight-size, American Artist has a step-by-step demonstration on their site. I'll keep posting my progress and I've learned my lesson... remember relationships, measure and measure again, and if something seems a little strange in the drawing, take the time to find out why, don't hastily try to finish an inaccurate drawing.
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