Drawing... a review on Barocci

Another artist I decided to view for Drawing from observation was Federico Barocci, deciding to look at him, as his drawings seem to have this one area of high detail and the surrounding area is just a sketch. I liked this technique as it showed how he saw the figures he drew and the areas that interested him and focused on that area and tried to observe it more closely. Its sort of fades from the detailed area outwards which i kind of like as it doesn't have definite edges and isn't boxed in, it seems more free on the paper. i think this type of experimentation will help me in my drawing as it will help me not worry about fine tuning all parts of the drawing and focusing on the necessary and the areas i want to focus on, also letting the drawing merge with the paper instead of clashing with the paper that its situated on, creating the boundary between drawing and surrounding paper.I decided to use his drawing Study of a Bent Right Arm (c.1590). I love his depiction of the tonal values of the muscles and how he's used the colour of paper to help support his drawing, also the way his drawings have this soft rendering about them.

This is my initial try at Barocci's style/technique, feel this is quite a successful first attempt, there is a long way to go but i thought it was going to look horrible when i first started. JUST SHOWS KEEP GOING EVEN IF YOU THINK ITS GOING TO LOOK RUBBISH, IT MIGHT NOT BE AS BAD AS YOU THINK! need to work on the tonal changes on the arm were the muscles curve around and how the light hits them and the hand needs to be closer to the shoulder!

Here i miss judged the amount of paper i would need (need to work on my size and composition of the drawing on the paper) think the hand is also got further away from the arm and seems lower down to me. the left hand side of the arm doesn't work as well as the rest of the image.

Okay this hand is HUGE! I think the tonal values are better than the ones previous. Don't think I've grasped the soft nature of his renderings though. Need to wok on composition Annie!

The hand is further away again but the tonal changes haven't deteriorated again thankfully all over. Feel I'm getting more of a jist of the tonal changes on the drawing and I'm trying to make the image less yellow and more of this nude and natural colour, but i think that was a lack of observation or a slip up on my part on choosing colour. Still need to get it softer and less yellow ( you would seriously think this person has jaundice) and also where i place the arm so that the hand goes in the correct position in the image.

Think this one has gotten less yellow (YEAH!) but I've added blue?  what the hell is going on here!?  think i got scared that you wouldn't be able to see any tonal changes and shadows and that, so added the darker colour. think my hand placement has gotten better... its finally closer to the arm/shoulder.

Tried to take away the blue from the one previous and add a yellow ochre colour  but very  scarcely so it doesn't turn yellow again. The hand yet again has gotten huge. I've tried to take the blue to the outline marks instead of using black as i felt they were too heavy and i felt if used it, it would look to much like the ones at the start of the exploration.

not sure what to think about this think I've got the ratio between nude and yellow more right in this one . The hand needs more work though. feel though that the muscle areas are improving certainly though. I find I'm actually noticing more, the more I'm drawing and the more I look. Just shows the observation is never fully seen in the first one, and its strange that you realise that you didn't actually see areas and how they were in relation to other areas.

Can you tell this is a small version, i quite like the shapes and forms more in this one but i feel this has gone yellow. Need to watch the colours that i end up using in the last one!

Okay this one is shite.(excuse the language) the hand is huge and arm to long,and the tones just wrong. i did try a different technique as i got some coloured paper to draw on, think i should just stick to what i know, but there is no harm  in trying different things. But for the next one go back! 

Don't think this one is as good on a photograph than what it is  in real life. but photographs sometimes don't do things justice. I feel I've kept the yellow to minimum and have achieved a slice of his subtleness and softness he achieves in his drawings. Always room for improvement though!

Close up on part of the no.10 drawing

Another close up, wanted to show the subtle hints of colour I've used as well as the definition in the outline lines

I feel I have done quite well its never going to look exactly like Barocci's but I'm glad that I've tried his technique and style. Definitely learned a lot through the process about how observing is very important and how i interpret the image in my brain to a style and an image on a piece of paper. Think this has also helped me realise that you see things you thought weren't there in the first place and that many drawings of the same thing definitely helps in progressing. Made me realise as well un-finished drawings are important as well as the finished ones and it has helped me in thinking about where i put down marks which determine the composition and the size of things.

Thank you for reading/looking. :)
Annie x