Footsteps: 6

This photo was taken on Sept 20th, 2006. At this point I have worked approximately 60 hours on this drawing. Roger Nelson gave me a feedback and pointed out a considerable number of things I needed to do to complete the cast drawing.

• Dark values need to be "brought up" in many areas, especially the heel and the stone platform.
• There are drawing and value problems with the toes that need to be corrected. This was not what I wanted to hear.
• The dark shading on the top of the foot has too many lines in it. It needs to be worked so that the lines disappear and it takes on the texture of velvet. He suggested that I brush it to bring it down a tone or two and then add more charcoal in a circular stroke or in a stroke that mimicked the direction of the "rythym".
• The background also has too many lines. It should take on the appearance of atmosphere. He suggested brushing it to even it out, which I did - and that worked!
• Many of my darker area need to have their edges softened.
• The areas where the light and the dark come together need to be "worked". this is the fine nuance of the drawing. They should not touch each other but should each soften into the neutral tone of the paper. The raw paper is where they meet.
• One of the last things I should do is add a very white, the most white, and crisp line along the edge of the heel and in the whitest areas close to the ankle. Likewise the dark line between the foot and the stone is the darkest dark and I must strive to make it so.

All in all, quite a bit left to do.

But I liked Katie's feedback the best: when you are done, paint the toenails red!

Footsteps: 5

This photo was taken on July 14th following a feed back session by John Dempsey.
His suggestions:

• Establish the values: get the lightest lights in and the darkest darks. Play back and forth between the lights and darks.
• The value of the background and the value of the base of the foot are directly propotional to the reality of the background and to the reality of the foot. In other words they may not match the reality exactly but the relationships of light and dark on paper should be proportional to the relationsips of light and dark in the reality.

I had difficulty getting the lightest lights light enough with the materials I had.

Footsteps: 4

This photo was taken on July 11 following a feedback session by Jill. She said it was very important to not ever let the charcoal directly meet the white chalk; that there should always be the midtone of the paper between the two. She also suggested that I start using blackboard chalk rather than the conte. This is because corrections can be made more easily with black board chalk than with conte. The conte should be saved for highlights. She also told me to work on the right edge of the foot;that those planes were not correct.

Footsteps: 3

At this point in the cast process, I am laying in the major blocks of shadow. Note that the actual cast (not my drawing) appears lighter in the photo then I actually see it. This is because of camera flash.

Foot Steps: 2

The first step in doing the cast drawing is to select the paper. This cast is done on a mid-tone grey. Previous cast drawings were done on white paper so that the cast was completed using only charcoal. For the lightest lights, the paper was the lightest light. On the grey paper, however, white chalk will be used to create the lightest lights. This adds another dimension to learning value.

After selecting and preparing the paper with rabbit-skin glue, it is mounted on the board and the board is placed on the same plane as the front of the cast and next to the cast.

The next step is to drop the plumb line and then draw it on the paper. Then major lines of the cast can be drawn on the paper using the plumb line. To measure off the plumb line, the artist stands 6 feet from the cast, always in the same place, holds a thin stick at arms length and measures the distance from the plumb line to an edge on the cast that the artist wishes to draw. The artist then uses that measurement to draw a line on the paper. Accuracy is extremely important.

In the photo you can barely see the plumb line, the outer edges of the cast, and some key lines within the cast. In the early stages it is also important to make very light lines - just in case things have to be changed - an inevitability.

Another key thing to remember is not to erase, but to "lift" the charcoal with a kneaded eraser. Erasing damages the fibers of the paper. My first cast drawing was trashed because repeated erasing of the mouth created a hole in the paper.