My first drawing from life!

(Brendan)

After all my work learning to draw, I had finally reached a level where I wanted to move to drawing from life (instead of drawing with the aid of a picture as a reference). Following the classical atelier methods, I read up on the sight-size drawing technique using such books as Drawing Course, by Charles Bargue, Cast Drawing Using the Sight-Size Approach, by Darren Rousar, and Classical Drawing Atelier, by Juliette Aristides. There are lots of websites that also aided me, such as here, here, and here. It's a fantastic way to train the eye to notice the most minute details of the scene being drawn and to truthfully render it.

Sight-size methods are often used in schools and ateliers to teaching "cast drawing" and "cast painting." For such a drawing, a cast statue is used as the subject with a light source at an oblique angle to create a shadow over a portion of the statue. Cast statues and busts are ideal for learning to draw because they are generally white in color with dark shadows and can be rendered solely with a combination of white and black tones. Casts also don't move, so a scene can be set up (a complex task that usually takes a day) and then left in place for weeks or months while the drawing is done in spurts (Molly's laughing now, because I made use of the "months" part of that).

We really had only one cast that we owned that would serve the purposes of this drawing, and it was an "Our Lady of Grace" statue that we have outdoors in a garden area. So I brought that in and set up shop in the only place in the house I could, the laundry room. Molly loved the fact that I did this :-) and left my set-up in place from about November to yesterday. I got charcoal dust all over the place, blocked off access to the water softener and some shelving, and used her favorite bed sheet (black flanel) as my background. Hey, it needed to happen.

So here's some pictures from the set-up after I finally finished last night (click either of them to enlarge)...

Unfortunately, due to the fact I had to take the pics in the dark and couldn't use a flash, they aren't quite true to the actual appearance (it's hard to see the subtleties of the shadows on the cast, for instance, as our cheap camera couldn't pic them up). And the background behind the cast was lighter in real life, more like what you see in my drawing. But, you still get a feel for the scene I was drawing, and I am ecstatic with the final artwork. Once I get it framed it will definitely be a prized piece of ours.

Here's closer pics of the drawing itself, which I could take with a flash (click either to enlarge)...

Cast Drawing of Our Lady of Grace, by Brendan Koop
Vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, and white chalk on gray Canson Mi-Tientes drawing board, approx. 16"x36"

I'm thinking a permanent place for this in our new house will be in the library, due to the quietness that's exuded in the picture and the fact that there is a fireplace there that would suit out-of-view light source of the picture.