2017.03.11 Week 11 Day 1
Saturday was spent refining and finishing the main contours of my Bargue #3: Jupiter. After a slow start in the morning with breakfast, laundry and completing the blog post for week 10, I was able to work for about 5 hours. This effort got me to the next logical stopping point. On Monday the teacher will “check” all the dimensional relationships before I begin the next step—shadow shapes. I completed some much needed shopping for staples at the COOP. The evening was low key with homemade potato, carrot, leek and onion soup spiked with rosemary, sea salt and fresh ginger. Then fresh strawberries and tipple of Grappa (Marolo Grappa di Nebbiolo from Distilleria Santa Teresa in Alba). I slept well and my shoulder got a nice 12 hour rest from drawing.
2017.03.12 Week 11 Day 2
Today, as usual, I did my weekly balancing of the books and verifying I am on budget. I finished my housekeeping. I completed my routine Sunday adventure: a) going to a different church to meditate and light candles for my 3 deceased dogs and my wife (who asked me last week to add one for our future dog whose name will be Gemma,) and completed my daily five mile walk.
Stops along the walk today included:
Stop 1: Santa Felicita
On my way to Santa Felicita, I happened across a wonderfully happy man walking his dog Luna. With kind permission and joy, he let me take his photo.
Santa Felicita is an ancient Romanesque church of Early Christian origin. In the photo you can see the Vasari Corridor that runs above the portico outside of the façade which connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Pitti Palace. There was a special grating installed at the back of the church for that members of the Grand Ducal court were able to assist at Mass. The photo of the inside shows the 18th century make-over by Fernando Ruggeri. The Capponi chapel was designed by Brunelleschi for the Barbadoi family.
Stop 2: Torrigiani Gardens
I trekked over to these gardens but alas they are not open to the public. So, plan B.
Stop 3: Porta Roma
This is the entrance through the original (expanded) 16th century wall. I stopped for a quick macchiato.
Stop 4: Viale del Poggio Imperiale
This gorgeous ever-rising boulevard ends at the Villa del Poggi Imperiale—now a school. No visiting without an advanced reservation. I enjoyed seeing the exterior. From Wikipedia: Beginning as a villa of the Baroncelli of Florence, it was seized by the Medici, became the home of a homicidal and unfaithful husband, and a lavish retreat for a Grand Duchess with imperial pretensions. Later given to Napoleon‘s sister, it was reclaimed by the hereditary rulers of Tuscany before being finally converted to a prestigious girls’ school. During its long history, it has often been at the centre of Italy’s turbulent history, and has been rebuilt and redesigned many times.
Stop 5: Chalet Fontana
Stopped in for a glass of Prosecco and a few minutes of a catnap in the sun.
After this, I worked on homework and made supper of calamari and tomatoes in linguini, with green beans and a salad of valerian. Early to bed since next week will be intense. We have two weeks left. Task are: a) finish as much of the Bargue #3 as possible, b) compete a two week pose and c) finish our drawing from the historical photo.
2017.03.13 – 03.17 Week 11 Day 3-7 Class 50-55
On 2017.03.13 Class 50 I ended the second day of the sight-sized drawing from a photograph. I always seem to have difficulties with the legs and feet. My upper body sight-sizing is generally good but I tend to always get the cant and size of the feet wrong. Note to self: go back to my anatomy lessons and really study the bone structure of the feet. Next week we will transfer this to transfer to Canson paper for final fall of light, shadows, big form modeling and rendering.
This week saw the earnest beginning of my final Bargue drawing of Jupiter. I was able to complete the measured outline of the major shapes. At this stage most shapes are only in the construct stage—meaning only short straight lines.
Finally, on 2017.03.14 Class 51 we began a two-week pose. This will end the term and hopefully expose us to the full range of skills needed to complete a final rendering. I was happy that I was able to finish the gesture, construct, shadow shapes and articulation in 3 days. My drawing efforts on the upper body went smoothly. However, it took several passes to complete the head. I had the tilt of the head off by about 3mm, the eye socket too low and the nose to high. What is very interesting is how profound even a 1/2 mm makes to the comparative trueness of the drawing to the model. What is even more interesting is how the brain processes this missed translation from 3D to 2D to improve one’s ability to “see.” My efforts were not helped by the model—who kept moving his limbs and head. While frustrating, it was as ironically helpful by making me look intensely at the figure and remember relationships before he moved again. Luckily we had the stool as a permanent “marker” for these relationships. The photographs show the sequence of the three days (2017.03.14-16 Class 51-54) before the transfer to Canson paper. On 2017.03.17 Class 55 I worked on the Canson paper by double-checking the articulation and finishing the grouping of the darks.
Before I entered the Angel Academy I truly believe this was have taken weeks. It amazes me what I have been able to learn in just 10 weeks. Davide Barbini is a superb teacher. We finished the first week of this pose on 2017.03.17 Class 55.
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