A Ballet dancer once told me that whenever she feels off her game, or feels like she hasn’t been dancing up to her expectations, she goes “back to the barre” to refocus on the basics and the foundation upon which everything else in ballet is built. The barre, of course, is that iconic wood rail that is attached to the walls of every ballet studio, where fledgling dancers first learn how to Pliés, Tendu, and Passe. I have hijacked the term Back to the Barre throughout my career, and always used it when discussing the need to go back and practice scales for instrumentalists, or breathing exercises for singers. Now, as I study and learn the art of drawing, I know for certain that going “back to the barre” now means going back to the Bargue.
After a few weeks off from class, during which I experimented with charcoal again, and tried to apply the classroom techniques to other scenarios such as drawing from a live model, it was quite revealing how fast you can lose grasp of the basics. The second round of Intro to Pencil Drawing started last week, and as we did the first time around, after a short demonstration for the new students, we were given a plate of a foot; an early Bargue plate (plate no. 10). I immediately was aware of all the things I wasn’t doing – stepping back frequently, using my plum lines, jumping into details too quickly before I adequately abstracted or outlined the whole subject. It was a little frustrating, but completely necessary to be reminded of the foundation upon which the rest of our drawing technique is built. The teachers at Studio Incamminati refer to the Bargue technique as the “secret sauce” to drawing well, and it was never more evident to me than after being away from it for a few weeks.
This week, the 2nd class, we did the same exercise with a hand plate (plate no. 15), and the homework this past week was another hand plate (plate no. 14). As you can see in my drawing of plate no. 14 (the hand holding the sharpened object), the gesture and proportions of the hand turned out well, but the object it is holding turned out too wide. I know without a doubt this is from not steeping back from the easel enough and, frankly, not spending enough time going over the whole drawing with the proverbial fine toothed comb.
For plate no. 15 (the hand holding or resting on the somewhat square-shaped block), I felt a little more at ease and like I was once again regaining the skills I learned throughout the last round of the class. It took three drawings to feel like I was refocused and back on track – a real testament to how quickly we can forget what we’ve been taught and how long it can take to get it back.
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