Reflections on Project 3 – Studies of free standing Classical figures

During my visit to London, I visited The British Museum to look at and draw various free standing Classical figure statues.

I enjoyed this project much more that I had anticipated as figure drawing has never been by strong point and something I tend to try to avoid. However I surprised myself at how they were fairly decent drawings!

I didn’t allow myself to choose sculptures that would be ‘easy’ to draw. Instead I forced myself to draw the first four that I came to. I did only move onto another sculpture once as it was very similar in dress and pose to one that I had already drawn.

I find it slightly difficult to assess the sculptures in skilful representation as anything like this is good in my eyes, purely because I am no good at it! I did pick up though on one of the sculptures, a Greek youth, that his head seemed to be too small and his neck overly thick in comparison to the rest of his body. However, I would hesitate in saying that this was a poor representation as we will never know without having met the subject.

I also noted how some statues were obviously idealised, others had slight individualities and the portrait bust was definitely a portrait! The use of drapery in the statues, especially the one of the sea nymph, also had the appearance of having been stylised for aesthetic effect.

I would not say that by drawing the sculptures I have a better understanding of them. I am naturally a person who is very observant and visually analytical. Also my drawings are not brilliant copies for future reference as I have potentially introduced more errors into the image. I feel that in circumstances like this, as much as the sketching is good for developing my skills, annotating from a photo would be more beneficial, especially if they are to be used in the future for reference.

Some interpretation (or application of knowledge learnt from study work) could be made to make a judgement on the status of the person especially by looking at the pose and dress, which I feel has the most significance. The youth is naked and stands tall and confident. The nymph is clothed revealingly and free from rigid poses, free from any restrictions and restraints. The lady is demurely dressed and conservative, standing in an elegant yet semi-relaxed manner.