Winged Victory cast sketch in oil

I set up my new winged victory today  to do a cast study sketch.

I hung a dark towel behind it so the light color of the cast figure would stand out, then I used a spot light from above as the one and only light source, That made the room kind of dark but it also produced a maze of cast shadows as you can see from the second picture.

Today's figure sketch

Red Chalk Drawing

Figure drawing practice, in red chalk.

Red Chalk Drawing

Saturday Morning, I got up early to get in some drawing practice, I did a bunch of loose figure sketches using Mike Mattesi's method of drawing force, then I went ahead and started shading in a few. 

The Giust Gallery sculpture reproductions, The Winged Victory of Samothrace

After doing much research I finely decided to purchase my first quality cast from The Giust Gallery located in Woburn, MA. They offer a wide selection of sculpture reproductions many of which are from the original castings, made by Caproni over 100 years ago. Since 1992 The Giust Gallery has been owned by Robert Shure (a renowned sculptor in his own right). Cast reproductions are made from gypsum plaster and water mixed. Casts require multiple layers to form the required thickness. The last layer is reinforced with burlap fibers or metal pipe.

Shipment to New Jersey took about 2 weeks and I couldn't have packed it better myself. It took some time and care to get through the foam box lining, shipping peanuts and taped on bubble wrap, but once I got the 19 inch tall The winged Victory of Samothrace  out of the box I couldn't have been more pleased.. The size, weight and detail of the figure are just what I was hoping for. 

They also make the Samothrace in larger sizes ( 29" & 39" inches) and a variety of patinas, the one pictured here is White Patina.

 

Museum quality sculpture reproductions

In the wake of  hurricane Sandy and the recent snow storm I've been putting in a lot of overtime at work. So besides being totally exhausted..... I guess I have a few extra bucks in my pocket to spend on what I consider a luxury as well as an essential tool for learning how to draw in the traditional way of the European academies.

That’s right I talking about the traditional plaster casts of European classic sculptures. So for all of us who can’t get out to the Louvre to practice drawing these things from life, this will be the next best thing.

My only problem was where to get museum quality sculpture reproductions at a fair price, as I was to find out, shopping on line for stuff like this can be a daunting task, with all the plastic cheap junk out there it's hard to tell what your really getting for your money without physically seeing it in the real world.

So after spending way too much time on line looking at these things, I thought I’d give a little review on what I came up with, perhaps what I've found will be useful for someone who may be considering buying casts to study but are hesitant, because of the lack of visual information available on line.

What is an Artist? | YOU Are an Artist!