Final Lichfield Composition

In today's session we completed a final composition based upon our studies and photographs of the Lichfield Cathedral based upon our previous experiments we did last session. I decided to draw the statue head that I drew last session but on a bigger scale with a blue wash and drawn in chalk. I chose the medium of chalk because of its natural graininess and its way to create smooth transitional tones, and the fact that chalk is a type of mineral so it relates quite well to the texture of stone.

The first step I undertook was the wash for the background that I created by mixing black and turquoise ink with a little bit of water to thin and then applied it with a thick brush. I chose the turquoise colour because the original statue had a blue hint to it's colour and I thought it would be better to add a ground then just leaving the paper blank white and uninteresting. I think the backwash works well for the first part of my drawing work and adds a nice blue tint underneath the white chalk. Although I will add another darker wash around the finished image s that it pops out more and doesn't blend as much into the light blue background.

Here is my start at colouring in my initial sketches in pencil with the medium of chalk and the detailing of the statues collar. I really like how my chalk drawing is coming along as I have managed to capture how the light catches the stone and the graininess of the chalk adds to the texture of the image as well as create a few inconsistencies in the shadowing that you would in most stone ornaments. I also like the tone that I have created with the chalk like on the folds of the clothing which look visually appealing and the slight highlights on the nose and the brows help to show how the light hits and shines off of the stone statues head.

Here is the final image with the completed chalk drawing and the new wash around the statues head. Overall, This particular project is probably the best drawing that I have done for the drawing sessions so far. I think its because of the medium I chose for the drawing was perfect for the image and my skill with said medium was quite high when I completed this drawing. I also think it was because that the subject that I was drawing was something that I was actually interested in, the anatomy of stone statues, so it kept me focused and motivated to draw the actual object with a high level of enthusiasm and the because I wasn't trying to be too experimental with my materials that it was completely untread territory like my other experiments that weren't nearly as successful.