It's not very good, it's outstanding ?
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Art
- Thread starter TyphooToffee
- Start date
Sorry, I didn't see this before. I am trying to get away from photorealistic art. If it is a good likeness I'd prefer it to have my own spin on it. I use apps a lot to change the image, then print that out and copy it. As you can see, I've now discovered pastels so will find it easier to get a looser style
The sculpture in the southern town of Sapri is a tribute to La Spigolatrice di Sapri (The Gleaner of Sapri), written by Luigi Mercantini in 1857. It portrays a woman in a transparent dress with one arm over her breasts.
Congresswoman Laura Boldrini said the statue was "an offence to women and to the history it should celebrate".
"How can even institutions accept the representation of women as a sexualised body? Male chauvinism is one of the evils of Italy," Ms Boldrini, a member of the Chamber of Deputies from the centre-left Democratic Party, said on Twitter.
The poem is written from the point of view of a female gleaner - someone who collected grain left in fields by harvesters. The gleaner leaves her job to join the failed expedition of Italian revolutionary Carlo Pisacane against the Kingdom of Naples, which led to 300 deaths.
The statue was unveiled on Sunday at a ceremony attended by local and national politicians, including former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
A group of female politicians from the Democratic Party's Palermo unit called for the statue to be demolished, saying in a statement: "Once again, we have to suffer the humiliation of seeing ourselves represented in the form of a sexualised body, devoid of soul and without any connection with the social and political issues of the story."
They may have a point. Nowhere in the poem is her apparel described as scanty see through or described at all.
See below.
Anonymous translation THEY were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
| One morning, as I went to glean the grain, | |
| I saw a bark in middle of the main; | |
| It was a bark came steaming to the shore, | 5 |
| And hoisted for its flag the tricolor. | |
| At Ponza’s isle it stopped beneath the lea; | |
| It stayed awhile, and then put out to sea,— | |
| Put out to sea, and came unto our strand; | |
| Landed with arms, but not as foemen land. | 10 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
| Landed with arms, but not as foemen land, | |
| For they stooped down and kissed the very sand. | |
| And one by one I looked them in the face; | 15 |
| A tear and smile in each one I could trace! | |
| “Thieves from their dens are these,” some people said, | |
| And yet they took not even a loaf of bread! | |
| I heard them utter but a single cry: | |
| “We for our native land have come to die!” | 20 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
| With eyes of azure, and with hair of gold, | |
| A young man marched in front of them; and bold | |
| I made myself, and, having seized his hand, | 25 |
| Asked him, “Where goest, fair captain of the band?” | |
| He looked at me and answered, “Sister mine, | |
| I go to die for this fair land of thine!” | |
| I felt my heart was trembling through and through, | |
| Nor could I say to him, “God comfort you!” | 30 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
| That morning I forgot to glean the grain, | |
| And set myself to follow in their train. | |
| Twice over they encountered the gens-d’armes, | 35 |
| Twice over they despoiled them of their arms; | |
| But when we came before Certosa’s wall | |
| We heard the drums beat and the trumpets call, | |
| And mid the smoke, the firing, and the glare | |
| More than a thousand fell upon them there. | 40 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
| They were three hundred, and they would not fly; | |
| They seemed three thousand, and they wished to die, | |
| But wished to die with weapons in their hands; | 45 |
| Before them ran with blood the meadow-lands. | |
| I prayed for them, but ere the fight was o’er | |
| Swooned suddenly away, and looked no more; | |
| For in their midst I could no more behold | |
| Those eyes of azure and that hair of gold! | 50 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! |
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Blimey.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Dazzle shops in Dry Dock at Liverpool, by Edward Wadsworth, 1919.
I’ve been painting and drawing a while always up for a natter
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Thus is a study I made in charcoal from a classic drawing course by Charles Bargue a very old and detailed set of master drawings … always worth studying the masters 
That's wonderful. I always preferred monochrome and, to quote Rigsby, I can appreciate the female form without throwing me leg over it. I'm getting into pastels now and, as they're less messy than charcoal, I think I may well have a go at an outline drawing I did on grey Strathmore paper a while ago. Every time I look through my sketch pads find things I started but forgot about.
My latest offering from a black and white photo c.1975. My eyes are drawn straight to Bill Wyman's mouth because it looks wrong. Luckily I scanned the outline drawing so can print it out and finish it in another medium. This is Indian ink
Woolverhampton_Blue
Player Valuation: £35m
Have you got the book? I know it’s very expensive but probably the best investment anyone could make if they want to learn the fundamentals.
That’s incredible mate, kudos. I defy anyone to work through Bargue plates and not become accomplished at observational drawing.
Yes I have the book and I drew thus using sight size techniques … it was about 3 days work …..I also photocopied the bargue plate and sized it up to A3 so this is a large piece of work
Funny that’s what my ex wife used to call me except she called me an F… large piece of work
I bought some cheap pastels from Hobbycraft to finish off an outline drawing from last year. It's on ordinary Strathmore drawing paper as I only took up pastels in the last week. I just wanted to see how they worked so didn't try for anything other than getting the values right. As long as I stay away from face portraits I think I'll enjoy pastels
