I think the recent cold has influenced me to warmer climes. Today's drawing is one one of the four massive statues at the entrance to Abu Simbel, possibly the most impressive Eqyptian monument I saw in my time there [yes, even more impressive than the pyramids]. Click here for a fabulous photo showing the sheer scale of the monument.
There are four statues that tower over you as you enter the temple, with a tiny replica of these inside at the back. For one day a year, the sun was in the right position to cast rays into the temple and onto the mini-statues heads, one at a time. Mathematically mind-blowing. [Unfortunately, when the temple was moved from its original position, as they were flooding the valley to create a new reservoir, the architects never managed to work out the correct positioning and the sun no longer annually 'blesses' each of the figures - still, its impressive that the entire monument was saved and reconstructed so faithfully.]
So to the drawing part. GOOD GRIEF was it hard! I drew from a photograph and found the perspective incredibly challenging. I know there are areas on it that are totally off, but thankfully the whole looks reasonably balanced. I also decided to 'strap on a pair' [artistically speaking] and draw directly with ink, rather than taking the easier route by starting and perfecting with pencil before committing the drawing forever with ink.
I'm chuffed to bits with it. It's way better than I thought it would be, and I think the struggle of drawing such a hard piece, without a pencil safety net, made the experience so much more thrilling. When I showed it proudly to my art teacher, Penny, she started mentioning looking at studying an Art Foundation course..... GOTTA love feedback like that!
My drawing of the beautiful, crumbling ruin Rievaulx Abbey is sitting in the corner of the room at the moment, beckoning me to dare to venture over and continue it. Why I am attracted to such difficult pieces, I have no idea. Well, yeah, I do. It's the thrill of the challenge, the 'white-water rafting' style highs and lows as it progresses, and the absolute sense of achievement when the final image works out better than I hoped. [So far I've only abandoned one picture because I really felt that I couldn't rescue it!]
So why am I worried? Kettle's on. Coffee's imminent and I'm just going to strap on a pair of caffeine-fuelled balls and just do it.
