"a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl"
Presenting the third (to fifth) example of the drawing-from-photographic sources project.
The original of this image, illustrating a news story about the forthcoming Sotheby's auction of Francis Bacon's 'Triptych 1974-77', where it is expected to fetch a record price in excess of £25million, suggested itself in a number of ways.
Firstly, it depicts an artwork, which presents an interesting challenge in itself, in the 'copying of', of course related to the traditional manner employed by artists in learning from the Masters how to draw & paint by example.
Secondly, depicting the work specifically of Francis Bacon, a painter I've long admired, for his work & its sheer painterliness & also his philosophy of art, most fascinatingly chronicled in the book of David Sylvester's interviews with Bacon, 'The Brutality of Fact' (a must read for any aspiring artist).
Thirdly, it was an interesting photo to work from given that Bacon himself habitually used photographic images as the source material for his paintings, in terms of figure reference, colour, etc.
Added to this was the knowing nod by the photographer to Bacon's work in the form of the figure moving across the hung paintings, captured in a frozen blurred moment suggestive of movement, as Bacon's familiar technique itself implied.
Furthermore, the image presented the opportunity of being worked upon as a triptych (separately across 3 A4 sketchbook pages, with virtually no reference back to the preceding image(s) apart from very cursory measurements for placement purposes), echoing the form of the original, again a familiar Bacon method.
graphite/60x30cm
original image: Daily Telegraph 08/01/08
In a desperate attempt at attention-seeking & coming out of the wilderness that this resource represents, I've also been busy creating an account & gallery at the rather excellent online creative community deviantART, which, in terms of image content at least, will mirror that of this blodge. Hopefully, I shall be able to capitalise on the community aspect particularly & generate some form of creative dialogue, which is essential.
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