Cast Drawing of Venus de Milo

Cast drawing is the term used at the Fine Arts League of Asheville (FALA) for a sight-sized drawing. This cast drawing was completed during the winter 2006 quarter. Students at FALA are expected to complete three cast drawings before progressing to the portrait class. This is my second cast drawing.

The process for doing a cast drawing requires that the student stand six feet from the cast, memorize what they see, then walk to the board and draw what they saw when they were six feet away -- not what the student sees standing next to the cast. It would be a completely different image.

One goal of this exercise is to teach the brain to truly see and to remember what it sees. Another goal is to learn about value.

The medium is charcoal.

This drawing consumed about 80 hours of my time and takes infinite patience by both the student and the teachers, Nathan Bartling and John Dempsey.

When she went home at the quarters end, she was perched on a chair in my living room. The next day some fellows came to pressure wash my deck and the water came through the crack around the door frame and put ugly black streaks across the drawing. It could not be corrected and I felt sick -- so much time!

What did I learn? In addition to learning about value and tone, how to see shapes, and the meaning of patience and persistence, she reinforced one of life's lessons: just like each of us, she was created as perfectly as her creator could make her, but life came along and gave her some flaws: ugly black things that could not be erased. So I shall accept what she is now and love her anyway. In fact, I may even frame her, just as a reminder...