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10/05/2022 — 17/100
Technically I failed the challenge for not posting yesterday but I’ll continue as far as I can. My time has been pretty tight lately in preparation for moving to another city so I’m struggling a bit, but we’ll get there.
Today I chose to make a whole figure, very calmly and slowly. I’ve noticed that I’ve been copying a lot lately and having some focus difficulties and needed to slow down and get back to paying attention while drawing. I downloaded a Pomodoro app to help me with this. I didn’t notice it at first either but these are the two full figures from the previous drawing, it’s the same baby.
I think I got a pretty solid lay in at the beginning because I drew very slowly and calmly. I don’t find any big problems related to that when I flip the drawing. I had some problems with the head tho, I realized it was indeed a box after finishing the drawing. My biggest difficulty was trying to render the drawing (the original is a very polished drawing). Again, I know very little about anatomy and will be properly introduced to it later as I’m following the NMA curriculum to the letter currently. The torso was extra difficult for me as I couldn’t follow the layout of the rectus abdominis, so I ended up sort of dropping everything in shadow and leaving only the center line to demonstrate the thinking I was following.
But really, I think I did pretty well on the construction. I’m satisfied, for sure I learned more about gesture and structure.
08/05/2022 — 16/100
This time I went for Michelangelo’s famous baby! I limited myself to head and arm to learn more about structure this time.
The arm is designed as a cylinder that turns into a box in the elbow region. The forearm is represented as a sphere and the wrist and hand are boxes. I had a really, really hard time trying to transcribe the graceful forearm gesture, I don’t think I got it in the end. I think the lack of anatomy handicapped me in this region, especially in the elbow connection.
The head is relatively simpler. Pretty chubby, so two spheres – one for the skull and one for the face. I could have made the skull slightly bigger tho.
07/05/2022 — 15/100
With this one, I finish my first sheet of drawings from this challenge! It is made up of the last three drawings (including this one) and the drawing of the torso leaning to the side of page 1.
I often struggle with this kind of profile view in Michelangelo’s drawings. I know there’s a very soft curve in the back, but I usually can’t get it as dynamic as the original. The buttocks should be a little further forward I think to be closer to the original. The leg should also be a little longer and pointed up to make it more dynamic.
I was worried that the head looked wrong now that I flipped it but it is correct. Could be a little more boxy maybe but that’s just a choice.
06/05/2022 — 14/100
Another quick sketch from the same sheet as the previous drawing. I’m not aware if this page ended up being developed into something more finished, but I think the previous pose is much more dynamic than this one, this one is more tense and contained. But of course, the pose is still dynamic like everything Michelangelo draws. I loved the S rhythm that starts at the head and face line and connects to the spine line through those 3 marks to go down to the legs. Brillant.
Again, I’ve been more comfortable studying these quick sketches because the amount of information is reduced to the essentials and I can track what Michelangelo did more easily. I’m paying close attention for example to how he represents the scapula and arms and how he overlaps them over the torso, it’ll be particularly useful for me! I’m looking forward to doing some quick sketch sessions when my challenge progresses some more, we’ll see how much I’ve learned. The leg got a little thin as I ended up ignoring the muscles altogether and didn’t go back to put them at the end, but the gesture reads. That’s what matters.
05/05/2022 — 13/100
Went for another gesture today. I just love these quick sketches in ink by Michelangelo, they are both genius and so simple. They are also more manageable for me as they capture the essential so clearly.
Of course there is much more knowledge behind the original drawing, but I think I was able to capture all the landmarks he wanted to convey in the drawing: the scapula, the muscles of the torso, the beautiful fit of the torso into the pelvis (could apply Steve very clearly here!) and the physics of the butt against the surface. I also liked the leg. I’ll definitely study more of these quick sketches.
04/05/2022 — 12/100
This one is a pretty lovely drawing. Michelangelo was drawing from a sculpture and everything is very clear, the basic shapes, the spheres, the cross contours. There’s also another drawing he made of the back of the sculpture, I’ll probably study it at some point.
I could have taken more advantage of it if I knew anatomy to position the muscles correctly inside the ribcage, but it was a good study!
03/05/2022 — 11/100
Trying to keep it simple today, I wasn’t really in the mood to draw but that’s part of it. This drawing is very straight forward, there is a very clear rhythm in the original that starts at the curved neck and goes all the way to the leg, a pretty sweet and long curve.
I noticed now that I drew a very long ribcage. I’ll try to do better tomorrow!
02/05/2022 — 10/100
I just love those Michelangesque torsos. I’m in love with these fleshy forms, squashes and stretches, all of which are even more beautiful in dynamic poses. I feel like I’m absorbing some of these mechanics and that’s great! I misplaced the belly button tho, it should be more in the middle. When I advance more through the curriculum to the Figure Drawing track everything I’m learning will be more useful, I’ll finally learn anatomy properly.
I was a little bored of using graphite so this time I decided to use a simple black pencil to achieve something more oily and soft. I liked it, I think I will continue to draw with it!
01/05/2022 — 9/100
This time I chose to draw the body minus the head (!), it tends to confuse me a lot in Michelangelo’s drawings (especially the neck and the gestural connection with the body). Eventually I will get there! Gorgeus drawing too, very graceful and vivid. In this drawing I tried to keep things gestural. I think in overall it was a good study, I think I managed to put all the pieces together and keep everything simple.
Drawings like this are making me learn to better articulate the gesture in Steve’s method, it’s been a good experience. As they are very dynamic drawings I learn a lot, even if I only absorb a part of the master’s skill. I mean, a part of Michelangelo’s skill? That’s a lot.
30/04/2022 — 8/100
Going back to limbs, this time I decided to go for David’s legs. Again, as I’m rusty on anatomy, I focused on shape and gesture.
I think I got a pretty solid leg on the left. It could have been more beautiful if I hadn’t done that heavy line on the inside, it looks cartoonish. This leg was intentionally exaggerated (now that I’ve mirrored the drawing I can see that the foot is under a lot of pressure), I think I got a really good rhythm and gesture. Better to have a lot of life than none like Steve says! The lower leg forms are also good to me, in contrast to the upper leg. It could be a little thicker but it’s ok.
The leg on the right is a little wonky. The top part is pretty good, very simplified and built with clear basic forms. The lower leg looks weird to me. I think I got the leg outline right but I’m missing forms on the inside. Maybe the proportions are a little weird too.
29/04/2022 — 7/100
Another drawing that I did quickly because of other tasks (in this case, doing the homework of the Constructive Head Drawing live class that for personal reasons I had to leave for today). I love this head by Michelangelo, it well embodies the characteristic of terribilità that is characteristic to him.
Now that I flipped this drawing, there are some notable errors that I’ve noticed. The forehead is too tilted back, the amount of “cables” in the neck confused me a lot and things seem to have become distorted in general. It could have been better but apparently I got at least the shape of the nose and mouth right. I feel, however, that it was pretty insufficient.
I’ll certainly come back to redraw this head in the future.
28/04/2022 — 6/100
I wasn’t really in the mood today to do something very complex due to so many things to do so I decided to do a single gesture study of the master. It’s amazing how much anatomy Michelangelo used even in his quick sketches, total mastery of the subject was really something the Renaissance valued as a core tenet.
I also find this cuboid shape that Michelangelo used for the torso interesting. The first time I saw it was in an explanation by Josh on Master Monday and since then I haven’t stopped looking for moments when he opted for that particular form. I also love the figura serpentinata concept from that period. Vasari praised Michelangelo for his nearly infinite capacity for inventing figures and I agree, he was truly brilliant in that regard. Everything points in a different direction, everything is so alive.
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