In the Galleries - Week 1

While not doing pitch contests and running my international software business, I have signed up for another art class. This one is called Drawing in the Galleries, which means I get to spend one morning a week in the galleries of the magnificent Cleveland Museum of Art, drawing stuff. We are starting with charcoal drawing, which is new to me. The instructor is new to me as well. (Part of the reason I take different art classes is because every instructor has a different approach, so I learn more and get to pick and choose which I use when I.)

This instructor likes to start with form, or "masses". Basically the heaviest stuff. She then moves us to tone (light and dark). With charcoal, you can basically make the form all somewhat dark and then lighten parts with an eraser and darken other parts with heavier charcoal.

We started in the Egyptian Gallery, and worked on a statue of a bull which stands in the middle of the room. It is the Apis Bull, for those curious. Here is my drawing, done on cheap newsprint paper.

Afterwards, we were encouraged to find another piece of our own choosing. I chose the Seated Pair Statue, because I thought it was cool how they looked so formal, but still have their arms around each other. This was done on a higher quality paper which we prepped by rubbing charcoal all over it. (Lots of fun. Like fingerpainting for artists.) The faces were hard to capture off a statue, but I feel good about the tone.