Drawing from the Masters - Form

 

It's been over 2 weeks since I last blogged  - I've been busy  at work planning a large and complex orchid  cryopreservation experiment. The muse is still hiding but I've been sewing some more book wraps and spending Friday evenings at the National Gallery on a City Lit drawing course. The first week was mainly a tour  to highlight the particular themes and aspects we would be looking at over the following weeks. We started off in the coffee shop ( no time alas for a drink) where there were a selection of drawings by Frank Auerbach 'Working from the Masters' . I loved how vigorous they were but I think some of the others in the class weren't so impressed. There was only a short time for a sketch and I settled for  a Constable as it  had a comfy sofa in front!! (and it was of Weymouth!) .So last week for the session on 'form' I arrived early and had a bit of a recce of paintings that interested me ( this Vilhelm Hammershoi 'Interior') and collected a sketching stool.



The gallery talk started by looking at this Cezanne self portrait, pointing out the different planes and facets and even the dots that Cezanne used as part of the drawing process to measure from (there's one towards the back of his head). Then we looked at this Titian Virgin and child , concentrating on the area around her hand and sleeve and the childs upper arm, analysing the areas of light and dark horizontal and vertical to the picture frame which makes the weight of support of the hand on his back convincing.

We finished by looking at the Rembrandt self -portrait, again for the planes and facets and were given hints on analysing paintings and and drawing  from them using  examples from a book on Giacametti .

I was quite pleased  with my attempt of the Hammershoi , I'd forgotten how much I like  drawing and how much I learn from the process of observation.  I'm looking forward to my next class and am already thinking I might look for a Life Class again -  like excercise, I don't particularly enjoy it but I know it' s good for me!