My drawing of Bargue Plate No. 23
At last week’s drawing class and over this past week for homework, the concentration was arms, using Bargue Plates Numbers 23 and 24. I actually found the arm to be more difficult than just drawing the hand, mostly because of the extra musculature and the more complicated gestures. This was also the first time using a full 18”x24” page; prior to this week, we had been drawing the plates on half a sheet, effectively making it a 9”x16” drawing.
As I mentioned in a much earlier post, working larger is helpful, allowing me to work with larger gestures and seeing the whole picture much more clearly. It did feel a little strange going so much bigger than the copies of the plates we were given, but I felt I was able to adjust and adapt relatively quickly. This was also the first time, with plate 24, that we had to abstract the drawing ourselves.
With previous plates, we simply had to copy the already abstracted cast – just copying the form and shadow outlines drawn by Mr. Bargue. With plate No. 24, the drawing on the plate was finished; already shaded with other details already added. Breaking the drawing down to just the lines was interesting, and more difficult than I expected. While observing such a complex subject, like the arm or any part of the human body, it takes a trained eye to let most of that complexity fall away, and draw a representation that only uses the most basic of shapes – the line.
My drawing of Bargue Plate No. 24
Plate 24 was drawn in class, so I had a good amount of help and direction from my teacher, Katya Held. Plate 23 was the homework assignment, which is why the angle of many of the lines, as well as some gestural elements are different than the original plate. But, in the grand scheme, an enjoyable assignment and a valuable lesson in abstracting.
The original Bargue plats:
Comentários