Tuesday 25 May 2010




Course work: Today I did the statue drawing, using the Confederate Memorial on the square in our county seat as my model, working with charcoal on paper a bit larger than A3. (To my knowledge, this is the only statue in the county.) Fortunately, the statue is easily visible from the window of the room where my painting group meets, and I took advantage of the opportunity. This was a much more interesting project to me than the building drawings, and it seemed to move along without any real problems.

Reading:



Margaret Livingstone Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing

Abrams, New York, 2002

Pp 68-99



Personal sketchbook work: A copy of a drapery illustration from a book, done with a black Conté pencil. (This was done on a separate sheet approximately A4 in size.)

Townscapes check and log:

I used my limited-color palette to create a sense of depth by using stronger contrasts on closer objects, by use of exaggerated geometric perspective, and by an attempt to use some atmospheric perspective.

My preliminary sketches were helpful in deciding what not to include, as well as in helping to work out methods for drawing details of the structures chosen.

I think that I was able, overall, to use perspective a little more accurately here than in my earlier drawings, despite persistent errors.

The scale of the buildings is generally correct: I should have made additional effort at getting the windows in perspective. I could have done better had I worked this out on larger paper and then transferred it to the approximately A3 sheet that I used for the final drawing.

Within the limits of the palette, the colors are generally accurate except for one grey building that I rendered as brown. All the buildings included are brick, with stone, stucco, or cement trim, and where the owners have chosen to overpaint the structures they fortunately chose colors reasonably similar to my palette. I think the appearance rendered reflects the appearance of these buildings early on a Sunday morning, with no vehicles or pedestrians about.





Total time: 3hours 18 minutes