I thought I'd share some more images of evidence of my purposeful practice during the last few sessions I've sat down.
My interest in Cave Art continues. As well as replicating the oldest figurative sculptures, I've been replicating some of the earliest drawings ever found in caves such as Chauvet and Castillo in Europe.
An example this week has been the cave lion drawings from Chauvet Cave in Southern France from the Aurignacian period (c. 35,000 to 30,000 years old).
In the latest book I'm reading, 'Grit' by Angela Duckworth, she highlights the importance of approaching practice with a 'stretch goal'. In this case it was the ability to draw a lion head similar to those found in the Chauvet Cave.
I began by attempting to copy the lion head multiple times, but found the easiest way to approach what is a new, complex skill for me, is to break down the lion's head into various parts.
The hooks at the bottom of the sketchbook page illustrate the need to get the proportions and angles of the lion head accurate. I learnt that this one particular line was what the rest of the drawing relies on in terms of accuracy.
I repeated the individual parts over and over, and then combined the various pieces. After a while I began to notice the intricacies of the drawing, how elements of a drawing come together to form once image and the skill of the artist that drew this tens of thousands of years ago.
Here's my best one so far, drawn freehand - something I was very unsure I'd be able to do when I first started out. I've learnt there's no substitute for learning new skills. It's painful at the start, but at the end the challenge is always worth it.
Thanks for reading,
P
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