What I've been lacking, was art fundamentals and a structured art education. I knew how to get around that to get the job done, but it was so frustrating to be able to do complex effects, yet fail miserably at reproducing a likeness or not being able to sketch an animal with confidence.
My first project with Jonathan was this bargue master copy.
I thought I'd get it done in a few hours. About 140 hours later I made a drawing which looked close enough to the original. I had 2 more bargue master copies to complete.
My next project was a girl's head. It looked relatively simple. I ended up redrawing it 13 times before I arrived at a version which was good enough to finish.
To my surprise, I finished it in just over a hundred hours. In the process, I learned a very valuable lesson: past experience in art hardly ever translates into future outcomes.
After this came a series of cast drawings. In chronological order, they were:
A charcoal drawing on white paper of the back of a Philippe Faraut female torso cast: 100+ hours
Charcoal on toned paper of the front of a male torso cast: 60+ hours
and the front of a female torso cast done in charcoal and white chalk on toned paper: 8 hours drawing (proportions, values, edges) and 8 hours on cleanup.
I'm now working on my color charts and a master copy of Nikolai Fechin. I'll post it when it's done.
