Artwork In Development Phase 2

Artwork: Chariot Racing Drawing titled - 'Race of Souls'

Dimension: 19" x 39"

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Phase 2. Tonal Balance – The basics of light on perspective

When producing a drawing of Dynamic Realism, it is as if you carry a photographic negative in your head. You have to understand how something the white of the paper can come to the foreground or be pushed back to the background. An understanding of depth of tone and its impact on its surrounding environment is key to understanding how the composition as a whole is created and also with Dynamic Realism; how movement is carried within it.

Phase 2 of the drawing process is to try and grasp at a reference point that will give you an accurate tonal reading. This is vitally important on a work of this scale, but also very difficult because of the scale; because it is so challenging for the human mind to take on board a large area that requires acute attention to minuet areas yet convey a balanced whole.

This stage is the beginning of finding the basic point from which to start to comprehend both light and perspective.

It is critical to find a basic point or area to base my comprehension when I am trying to understand movement within perspective, and when the assumed fundamentals of perspective are complicated by the size and colouration of the elements that make up the composition. Perspective does not always follow the rules – how do you make something larger in the background fall behind the smaller object in front of it and still cause a viewer to understand the depth of perspective?

In this case, the depth of the tone of the grey horses (the middle chariot pair) will determine the depth of tone across the composition of all the elements.

With the understanding of the depth of perspective of the whole composition / the push and pull of the elements within it can also start to be understood. However, this is always a process of constant revision and adjustment, but you have to start somewhere, even if you are to refine it later.