April 7, 2011

     With about thirty minutes before we would have to leave, I stepped into a promising gallery room at the National Gallery and chose a painting to sketch as an exercise. It was a relatively easy choice; the 1786 Henry Fuseli oil of Oedipus Cursing his Son, Polynices has simple, strong dramatic shapes, and with four figures (that is a figure in the lower right weeping on one of Oedipus' knees) and a very dark background it's relatively uncomplicated. 
     This is as far as I got in the time available even though I whipped right into it; even skipping fundamental stages like measurement since I didn't plan on putting so much into it that being a bit off on the sketch would ruin a big time investment. I was more interested in practising my eye and hand, and within a time limit. The placement is surprisingly close (well, I was surprised), and maybe I'll go back to it for another 20 minutes or so when I'm there again... however most of the remainder is, as I said, very dark and just pressing graphite into the paper might not have much practice value.