I’ve been stalled a bit with my drawing exercises for Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I’m supposed to be drawing the portrait of a real model, and I’ve started to sketch my daughter Carle twice now, but we always run out of time. Today I decided to move on to light and shadows, even though I need a lot more practice drawing portraits. This is actually the main reason I wanted to do this curriculum– to get to the light and shadows part. I want to move my drawings out of two dimensions into three.
I actually enjoyed making this drawing (copy) more than any exercise so far I think. Betty Edwards is always talking about getting lost in right brain mode and losing track of time, but I find the exercises feel very slow and difficult. Playing with shadows and light, however, I found that time really did pass by quickly.
The assignment was to copy a self-portrait by Gustave Courbet. I mistakenly copied a copy of the drawing that is also in the book. Here are the three drawings: the original, a copy by a drawing instructor, and my copy of the drawing instructor’s copy.
Gustave Courbet Self-Portrait
Gustave Courbet Self-Portrait Copy by Brian Bomeisler
Copy of Brian Bomeisler's Copy of Gustave Courbet's Self-Portrait
Ha! I don’t know if Courbet would appreciate this progression. I’ve given him a pretty strange mouth. I did that part last and was running out of patience.
After I did the exercise I made a journal drawing to let off some steam. It’s a mountain goat on top of a mountain.
