Draw a Plaster Cast chapter 10
In the first stage of the drawing, using the soft grade of char-
coal, the artist applied a mid-tone of charcoal to the paper
in the same way that the graphite tone was applied in the
section “Tone Your Paper” in Chapter 4. The artist was then
able to block in the big forms of the plaster cast using a deli-
cate line with a medium-grade charcoal.
At this stage, the focus should be on establishing the overall
proportion and shape of the head, and the placement of the
features within the shape. Once the overall shape of the cast
was drawn, a centerline of the face was lightly drawn; in this
case, it was to the left of the center because of the^3 ⁄ 4 -view-
point that the artist had. The centerline of the head was easy
to determine as this is the line where the nose falls. The
artist also indicated the horizontal lines where the eyes and
bottom of the nose and mouth would be.
By employing the measuring methods used to help with
proportion, the artist could determine the major angles and
their relationship to each other (see “Find the Angles” in
Chapter 4). Also note that the artist was intentionally simpli-
fying the forms by making them more geometric, which
helped the artist determine the shape of the large forms.
Stage 1
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