The Big Draw

While in London last week, I discovered that October is the month of The Big Draw, promoted by the Campaign for Drawing. All the museums were taking part with cool workshops. My friend Adrian and I attended one at the National Gallery on chiaroscuro. Paintings of Caravaggio, like the one at left, were projected onto a screen as the moderator explained the term: dramatic strong contrast between light and shade. Then two models appeared, appropriately dressed, and took up positions at a table with a glass of wine and grapes, imitating the painting projected behind them, and posed for 45 minutes, lighted by a bright spot, while we sketched them in pencil or charcoal. My sketch is below.
Later that day I went to two more workshops at the National Portrait Gallery and spent Saturday with my friend Jude at the British Museum. One of the workshops there involved drawing real artifacts that we could handle and examine, in the way that archeologists document them. We also attended an interview by Alaisdair Sooke with of one of Picasso's models, Sylvette David.
Have a look at the Big Draw website. I have registered La Sirène du Causse's Monday night life drawing group and yesterday received a package about how to set up an event. Will have to do that next October.