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Post date: Feb 2, 2014 11:44:04 PM
I had students do the basic measuring and sighting technique that Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérôme developed with plates of plaster casts. I did not use the plates they had, I just used some generic pictures of people I've found that are facing straight forward, with little to no facial expression, clearly lit, and of a high resolution. The students did rather well with it. I did have to kind of make it around to each student and walk them through it if they didn't pay attention or understand me the first time, which is understandable with this technique. but overall some fantastic work was made. It may not look it from these examples but take into account that these are students who on the whole have not taken these kinds of things into account. I think this is a great addition to my portrait unit and it is a great companion to my projects I do with the grid. This project was very tough for a lot of students, but for the ones that did do it properly, even if they didn't follow through with 100% accuracy, it looked as if they were fully engaged in the revaluation and revelation of careful observation and recording. I hope this has a positive impact on draftsmanship.
This particular student's work above prompted a very in depth and productive conversation about that student's particular strengths and weaknesses. She had drawn the eyes first, and as you can see, she drew them rather well, for eyes, they had all of the details necessary to convey and appear as eyes except for one major issue. She hadn't measured or sighted them within the context of the whole face properly. So they were, obviously to me but maybe not to her, too far apart. And she said what I hear most students say, "I don't like to be told what to draw," "I draw what I like" "I like to draw realistically and aren't these realistic" and numerous other things to try and recover her work. Needless to say I was brutally honest with her in criticizing the much larger issue of the eyes placement which was the objective of the assignment. She acquiesced and continue to draw the rest of the face exactly how she was supposed to.
This particular student is also noteworthy, she had a lot of trouble with measuring at first. It took a great deal of patience and perseverance on her part to sit through me helping her through exactly how to do this process. And then she followed up with a well constructed face. I believe I only truly helped with the left side of the face, and she was able to do most everything else. The shirt and shoulders were ignored, but I was satisfied to see that the process was followed and done properly despite her initial misgivings.
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