A Bit of Italian Portraiture

Over the past few days of my studies in Florence, I took part in drawing sessions with students from Texas State University, who are also partaking in the ARTIS program with IUP. On Saturday we revisited the Duomo Museum, which houses many of original works of art from the Florence Cathedral (The Duomo) or its adjacent baptistery, and practiced some subtractive graphite drawing. My drawing captures the expression of a soldier about to decapitate John inVincenzo Danti's St. John the Baptist Beheading (1569-70). I only had an hour to draw and was not able to finish, but it was great to practice observational portraiture again after being away from it for about a month now.

Yesterday, we drew Michelangelo's famous and amazing sculpture David using black and white charcoal or conte' on toned paper, my second favorite drawing technique to the subtractive graphite method. David's facial expression was most impressive and lifelike in person, and so intrigued me that I stayed for a full two and a half hours to make a relatively finished drawing, as did many other students.

Seeing David was a special experience, much like when our tour group climbed to the top of the Duomo on Friday for an unbelievable view of the city and countryside. It truly brought us all together as one artist collaborative, and for the first time on the trip, no one had anything at all to complain about for even a second. And seeing as our program is so exhaustive, I am happy to have such cohesive dynamics developing between myself, my IUP classmates, the faculty leaders, and between the other universities in the program. With them, there is so much more possibility for learning and art development while I am here.