Charcoal on drawing paper

I’ve had the great pleasure of working with the Gateway Academy of Classical Art in St. Louis, Missouri for over three years now. They teach atelier-style drawing, painting, and sculpting techniques that I attribute an exponential growth of my skills to. This piece was drawn from a bargue plate—a master rendering of marble sculpture done with graphite or charcoal. I learned time-honored methods of observation to carefully understand the proportions and values of the drawing I was tasked to copy.