We're fortunate in London at the moment to have several superb exhibitions running. I've seen the
Art of PIXAR show which is great fun then over the Bank holiday last weekend I visited two excellent shows on classical artists. Firstly,
'Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master'. This does exactly as the subtitle suggest in two ways - it allows you to get within a couple inches of these breathtaking, 500 hundred year old drawings & it also gives you a sense of who the man was & how he lived. There are 90 drawings on display & several letters from & to him. There's correspondence between him & a nephew where he's thanking him for a gift of cheese & giving him advice on finding the right girl to marry!
It's a pleasant surprise to find great big enlargments of Michelangelo drawings on the Tube.


Interesting article here by Waldemar Janusczcak in the Sunday times Magazine, 5th March 2006.





This is a copy I made from a Michelangelo drawing on the advice of a fine artist I once worked with on a job in Cardiff.
It's a good exercise & helps you learn a lot about what kind of marks best portray form, bone, hair, light on skin etc. But I got the ear in the wrong place though!

Found this illustration by
John Glasham in a collection of his work. I was not familiar with this artist & thank man about town Brendan Amphlett for introducing it to me!
'TUTTO SPIRITO E FOCO'
The second show I saw, & even more grandly titled than the Michelangelo, is
'Tiepolo: All Spirit & Fire' at the Courtauld Institute. It's a fine collection of oil sketches made as quick studies to work out compositions & get client approval before embarking on the finished fresco. The man could make a ceiling look like this -

These are some quick thumbnails I made while I was there.