Carrasco Studio

About Face! Drawing Lesson # 10

W.B. Yeats by John Singer Sargent.

I was delighted to find this dashing portrait of Yeats, by, who else, John Singer Sargent! I had no idea Sargent knew Yeats... one of my favorite painters drawing one of my favorite poets. Yeats as a young man, ardent, handsome with that sensual mouth.  What woman could resist him?  But one woman did....

William Butler Yeats fell in love with Maude Gonne when he was 21 years old and although he married later  and had two children with his wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees, he never got over his love for Maude.  Being a poet, he celebrated her loveliness (even George Berhard Shaw was astonished by her beauty) in transcendant poetry.

Maud Gonne MacBride (Irish: Maud Nic Ghoinn, Bean Mhic Giolla Bhríde, 21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953) was an English-born Irish revolutionary, ...

 

His last poems were about Maude Gone.  How his wife must have felt, we will never know.  As we would say in our time, as we get older, we all carry baggage.  WB Yeats carried a suitcase full of Maude Gonne all his life..

One of Yeat’s descriptions (paraphrased) ....”Pallas Athena with that straight back and arrogant head”  and ...”the fire that stirs about her, when she stirs,”  God! What woman wouldn’t love to be described as such! 

Here is one of his many poems about her face, and her wild spirit.

     WHEN YOU ARE OLD

        by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

          W HEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
            And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
            And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
            Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
            
            How many loved your moments of glad grace,
            And loved your beauty with love false or true,
            But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
            And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
            
            And bending down beside the glowing bars,
            Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
            And paced upon the mountains overhead
            And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

“When You Are Old” is reprinted from The Rose. W.B. Yeats. 1893.

...in old age.

Drawing Lesson 10

 

Leonardo DaVinci.....both drawings

Discuss reading in Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain, 3/4 view. Hand out Wyeth and DaVinci drawing.  Difficulties and advantages...more interesting....  Width of different sides of face....eye is narrower and shaped differently.  Nose seems wider..top and side.  Mouth from center to corner is on the turned side and shaped differently from the mouth on the other side of the centerline.

 

 Practice on DaVinci. and Wyeth drawing with colored pencil..Negative space outline...then the negative space of the farthest chunk of eye (between large neg. space and nose)  Then central axis....curved...looking down , looking up !  Horizontal axis ....curve around egg (show egg and “features”)  Choose a basic unit. Use it to measure distance to eye, back of ear....etc. (Show me)




Look at Escher drawing and hand out circle (Or trace a circle on your paper of at least 6") and round mirror. Prepare to draw your own self portrait in 3/4  view....but outline shadow shapes as well.Squint!

DRAW VERY LIGHTLY WITH A SHARP PENCIL!
4. Set up lamp so you will have part of your face in shadow .... Prop up mirror so you can see top of head to chin.....side of face to at least back of ear. Adjust your posture so you are in a comfortable position...don’t change this for your drawing.. Start with pg220.  Look at negative shape first...note where it begins and ends on your circle format.

5.   Lightly draw the negative shape on your circle (I check it)  Now LIGHTLY draw the central axis of your 3/4 view....watch the angle! and “curve it around your “egg” Choose your basic unit...(show me)....I want to see you use this unit, either horizontal or vertical, for all your measurements.

6.  Now lightly mark in where the horizontal axis crosses the central axis for eyes, then nose, then mouth and chin and top of head if it shows in the mirror.

7. LIGHTLY mark dots for beginning and endings of eyes, nose, mouth and  ear. (I go through pg 222)
 Now draw this very lightly in contour....all the shapes of your face.

8.  Now SQUINT at your face and very lightly draw in all the shadow shapes.  Hatch all, then cross hatch the medium and then the darkest core shadows
Try to achieve a continuous tone.

Drawing Lesson 8, Scandalous Profiles and Classical drawing

 
These two profiles of women painted by Sargent are very telling.  The first is of Rosina Ferrara, a young girl of Capri, and the second, of course is of the notorious Madame X whose full length portrait resides now in the Metropolitan Museum. (see the full length portrait at the bottom of this blog.)

Ms. Ferarra modeled several times for Sargent when he was just starting out as a painter in his early twenties.  Rosina was a girl of Capri, and several painters besides Sargent searched her out as a model, and one, George Barse, eventually married her and brought her to the USA.  In all reports, she had a sweet disposition (read "compliant") and loved to dance. Her 43 year marriage was very happy, her husband adored her, and she raised 2 lovely children.  Madam Gautreau, or Madame X as she was later labeled,  had a very different life, and not an especially happy one.  When as a "professional beauty", her loveliness begain to fade and her notoriety grew, Madam X retired from society. 

I am entertained by the contrasts in the two profile/portraits.  Sargent was from a  conservative  social background, but because of his talent and youth, he was thrown in with a more raffish crew of artists and models in Capri.  His portraits of Rosina celebrate her earthiness and love of life. I doubt if his mother would have approved.  

Often Rosina is shown dancing or leaning insouciantly against a wall or branch of an olive tree.  Not at all the proper corseted young American woman. There is a  bit of class snobbery  and fascination with "exotic types" evidenced in Sargent's portraits of Ms Ferrera.

In contrast, his portrait of Madam X is as coldly seductive as much as it is formal.  Much, I imagine, like the model herself , and Sargent's professional ambitions are as much reflected in her portrait  as  is Mme Gautreau's social climbing.

Mme X  John Singer Sargent               Sargent painting in Paris

Lesson 8  Drawing the Profile from life.....and Drapery and Hatching

1.  Look at Drawing assignments for the profiles of Mme Gautreau in Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Discuss Sargent and Madam X.

2. PROFILE.

Set up for doing a profile of me. Use the plexi view finder and bring out my profile diagram .

a.  MARK YOUR FORMAT!!!!
b.  Mark cross hairs on format....lightly
c.  CHOOSE YOUR BASIC  UNIT! (page 183...#6...Read it)  Show me.
d.  Transfor the basic unit to your paper....let me see.
e.  Using the basic unit as a measuring guide, mark the top of the head and the back of the ears and head.
f.   Go through pg. 184 to 186 step by step.  Compare angles of lines to horizontal and vertical sides. No shading
g.  Go thru 188 tips.

2  Hatching and Crosshatching

Here I include several examples from Anthony Ryder's wonderful book on drawing the figure...The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing, year 2000, Watson Guptil publishers.  Mr. Ryder has kindly given permission to scan portions of his book for some of these lessons, but I would recommend that interested students and artists purchase their own copies.  Also, check out his sites, : www.tonyryder.com and www.theryderstudio.com.  His drawings are exquisite and his writing is cogent and often funny.  A must for your library!

a. Softly, regular lines (show examples) for hatching...relatively short.  Cross hatching is hatching on top of one  another....softly!  Sharp point.

b.  Show examples in Ryder’s book, ...Look at pg. 208 in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Practice this your own hatching and crosshatching.

3. Drapery

a. Hold up your paper viewfinder....MARK YOUR FORMAT!

b. Lightly mark the cross hairs on your format.
c. Look closely at the drapery.  Choose your basic unit!  Show me! LIGHTLY draw the entire outer shape of the drapery. Draw the NEGATIVE SPACE on the example first.
 LOOK AT THE NEGATIVE SPACE of the actual drapery
 d. . Squint and draw the outer line of the entire medium and darkest values of the drapery.

e.  Hatch in the entire medium and dark shapes with a light, regular sewing machine like one directional  hatching. Now, LIGHTLY draw in the darkest value shape within each medium value shape.  Cross hatch the darkest shapes....regular, lightly.....until you have the right dark value.

4.  Dog or bird profile.....choose either.

a.  Hold up your paper viewfinder....MARK YOUR FORMAT! (ask the steps...cross hairs, Basic unit)  It soon becomes automatic.
b. Draw the NEGATIVE SPACE on the example first. Then draw the negative space on your paper.
c. Hatch and cross hatch. Both have directions and length in their hair or feathers.  Therefore, the crow’s hatching would be a little shorter than the dogs.  LEAVE THE LIGHTEST VALUE UNHATCHED EXCEPT FOR LINES BETWEEN HAIRS OR FEATHERS.

Assignment: Draw an animal of your choosing (a live one is best, but you can use a photo if none are available.)  Hatch and cross hatch.  Draw someone in profile.  Try hatching and cross hatching on the profile.  There are subtle changes in value all over the face.  Read 194 to 213

....and the shocking Madam X, who, after the display of this painting in 1884, was ridiculed and condemned for her "immoral" pose, and the artist, John Singer Sargent, was dashed of his hopes to become a sought after portrait painter in France. Sargent  had to withdraw this painting and fled to England.  Madam X, it is rumored,  eventually retired to her estate and draped cloth over all her mirrors to avoid seeing her aging image.

 Sargent said when he sold it to the Metropolitan Museum in l9l6, "I suppose it is the best thing I have done."