Michael Gage

Thirty six hours later: Sight size 6

23 February 2013

So that's it. Thirty six hours on one drawing.

Thirty six hours isn't enough.

Nearly there: Sight size 5

16 February 2013

Week five of the sight-size drawing course. More working on the form and volume, expressed with just the light and dark of the pencil.

This is totally absorbing. Time flies... Have we really only got one more day of this? I could spend forever doing this...

Out of the grey, into the dark: Sight size 4

09 February 2013

Starting at the top of the head, and working down. Adding dark and light to the head. The form starts to emerge.

Now it starts to make sense: I start to see why the earlier stage took so long. Making sure they were correct makes this stage easier (relatively!): the shape, size, and midtone are in place, so now "all" I have to worry about is the form and volume.

One shade of grey: Sight size 3

03 February 2013

End of day 3 of the sight size drawing course. Carefully, slowly, painstakingly, covering the shadow area with a flat even tone of pencil.

Eighteen hours down, eighteen hours to go.

A thin line between light and dark: Sight size 2

26 January 2013

Here's the result of the sight-size drawing after twelve hours:

This week, we looked for the line that separates the light (which in this case was falling from the left) from the dark, and as before, draw the broad line before refining it.

Get fit and draw: Sight size 1

19 January 2013

Off to the London Atelier of Representational Art to learn "sight size drawing". One day a week for six weeks. Six hours a day. That'll be thirty six hours working on one drawing.

Here's the result after six hours on the first day.

Pencil on paper, A2.

What we did this week: Draw the envelope, a polygon of about six sides that encompasses the entire shape. Then refine each six, moving slowly towards a more accurate outline. The idea being that you get each stage right, before moving on the next.

There was lots of standing well back from the easel, at the point where the model and the image appear the same size. Then measure model against drawing. Walk up to the easel; make one mark; walk back to the starting point; check the mark against the model. They say you walk about five miles in a day doing this.