nanke's stuff

OK, this time I really mean it!  This is the last version of my DaVinci copy.  I darkened the values, although it still isn't quite right.  But ol Yeller and I are parting ways.  It's time for me to move on to something else .... not sure just what yet, but definitely something else.  He was a good model (you know, he Never Moved At All!!), but I'm a tad tired of him.  So, one last look ....

My next copy is based on  a DaVinci study for The Battle Of Anghiari.  One of the challenges in this one for me is the many values in it.  Another is that it's a face (yikes !).  I find faces very difficult to do.  I have a hard time getting proportions right, correct angles, and the proper relationships between the various features.  So, this one seemed like a good one for me.  DaVinci did so many faces - many of them quite monstrous.  I'm thinking that at some point I will do some of them.   So, here is my reference photo, followed by my initial go at it. 

I didn't have much time to draw today as this is my day to work at the Health Dept.  I volunteer there one day a week (and I love it!).  Anyhow, I noticed that every time I look at the reference photo, I see something different, such as shaped formed by value differences that I hadn't noticed before.  Of course, those insights  throw my own drawing way off.  Even so, rather than just give up and toss the whole thing, or get out the eraser  (again), and remove large segments of it, I just chalk it up to the learning process and continue on.  I think I'm nearing the end of this one.  I know I'll do a bit of tweaking on it, which of course I'll post, but I think maybe one more drawing session with it and I'll be ready to move on to something else.  So, here it is, not quite finished.

Little by little I'm making progress on my drawing.  I'm finding the hair especially challenging, but also fun to do.  I think I might be in the home stretch, or at least nearing it.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the only book I could find here at home about DaVinci is is gigantic tome that's sort of hard to work with ... it has a mind of its own and doesn't want to stay open.  Anyhow, while looking for something to draw, I didn't read any of the text - just looked at the pictures.  Imagine my surprise (and chagrin), then, when I actually read the text regarding this picture and discovered that the drawing isn't by DaVinci at all!  It's called "Young Man in Profile Facing to the Right" attributed to Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio.  Even that designation is in question, and some scholars prefer the designation, "school of Leonardo".  So, for the sake of consistency, I'll continue to refer to it as DaVinci, but you and I know better now, don't we?

Now I'm working back and forth between the hair and the face.  The hair is giving me a really  hard time, but I'm still enjoying the process.  When I compare my version with the original, I see so many things I did wrong, but then where's the surprise in that?  The next one I do will be in a larger sketch book.  I won't be able to get the whole drawing on the page.  What a good excuse (one of many,  I might add), to try doing it again when this one's finished!

After drawing the eyes and noses, I decided I would spend some time copying drawings done by Leonardo DaVinci.  I was sure I had a book (rather a small one) here with a lot of his sketches in it.  Well, I searched high and low, and all I could find was a really heavy, huge, hardcover book that weighs 7 lbs ...  seriously - I weighed it!  So, since that was all I could find, I settled on one of his drawings and started to work.  I'll show you the original that I'm working from as well as my humble attempt to copy it.  It isn't finished, but I'll keep posting the two pictures so you can watch my progress.  I have to admit, I'm a tad anxious about this endeavor, but what the heck - nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?