Figure Drawing Class with Robert Liberace, Exploring Prud'hon's Technique

In today's Figure Drawing class, with instructor Robert Liberace, we explored the technique used by French Romanticist Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823). Prud'hon is known for his stunning toned paper drawings using charcoal and white chalk to create a sculptural drawing. Rob did a wonderful demo of Prud'hon's drawing technique used blue tinted Ingres paper, vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, charcoal pencils, white chalk and white charcoal pencils, brushes and a chamois.



Liberace begins by blocking in the figure with vine charcoal. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer.



As Liberace develops the drawing he blocks in the large shadows with charcoal and the highlights using white chalk, in a criss cross manner. This is how Prud'hon developed his works. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer.



Finished demo drawing by Liberace. The finished drawing was built up using layers of charcoal and white chalk. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer.



Sketch by Prud'hon showing criss cross application of shadows and highlights.



Drawing by Prud'hon, female back.



Another finished Prud'hon drawing.

Artist Rebecca Alzofon has reconstructed, step by step, Prud'hon's technique. Her website is very complete and worth a look.

Figure Drawing Class with Robert Liberace continued

In class this week Robert Liberace demonstrated his soft charcoal technique using tinted paper. Rob has a very confident and energetic way of working. He quickly blocked in the form using vine charcoal. Using a large brush he stabilized the background layer of charcoal by smoothing it out. As he continued to build up the image he added shadows using a soft velvety charcoal. Turning his attention to more detail he used a kneaded eraser to pull out highlights. He also used a paper towel to pull out highlights and lighten areas of the drawing. The darkest darks were added using "Char-koal". The finished drawing seen below has a very painterly quality, not unlike John Singer Sargent.



Charcoal demo by Robert Liberace. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Finished charcoal drawing by Robert Liberace. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Charcoal portrait of Henry James by John Singer Sargent.

Figure Drawing with Robert Liberace at the Art League

On Friday I started taking a course at the Art League in Alexandria with instructor Robert Liberace. The course is the Figure and Portrait Explored and includes studying the figure with various master drawing techniques such as red chalk, charcoal and silverpoint. Liberace is an accomplished painter, draughtsman and sculptor and a gifted teacher.

This week I started a long study of the figure using terra cotta pencils on a tinted paper I prepared by hand. The paper (hand made by Twinrocker) is prepared using watercolor and shellac and when dry takes the pencil nicely and allows for erasing out highlights and adding them with white chalk. This technique was popular with High Renaissance artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.

I plan on posting about the techniques I experiment with in the class and the progress on the drawing below.



Red chalk drawing in progress by Marie Dauenheimer



Silverpoint drawing by Marie Dauenheimer



Charcoal demo drawing by Robert Liberace