Last year I enrolled in a classical realism art course when, while idly researching how far I'd have to travel if I wanted to study at an atelier, I made the incredible discovery that there's one practicing not just in Adelaide but a breezy 20 minute drive from where I work.
The below piece is the first thing I finished as part of the course. It's not actually new—it's from the end of last year—but I've been meaning to put this gif together for a while and this gave me an excuse to actually do it. It's a Bargue drawing of a foot! Which is to say, there was a reference plate of a foot drawn by Charles Bargue, which is to be copied exactly using the same techniques you'd use to do an accurate drawing of a cast (taking measurements by eye from a distance, etc). This one's done in graphite.
Annoyingly I either didn't take photos of the earlier stages or those photos have been obliterated from existence, but you still get the idea.
The finished thing:
And here it is beside the reference:
