Greek Figure Tracings by David Claudon
© 2003 David Claudon
Assignment: Create a Greek red or black figure picture
- Greek figure drawings are based on a canon of either six or seven heads. The Apollo at right, for example is basically six heads tall.
- Draw a figure approximately 7 inches high so that you can get good detail in your drawing. As with all frontal based art, include a baseline. Note how the face is generally in profile and the eye is a straight-on view just like earlier frontal based art. Do the original drawing in pencil and then ink the drawing in using black ink.
- If the head of the figure is an inch, then the entire body would be six to seven inches in height.
- Note that the front of the face is drawn with only a slight curve without indicating a brow and indentation for the nose at the eye level.
To see a larger version of these faces, click on picture.
- Red figures appear terra cotta or burnt sienna on a black background. White accents are sometimes used.
- If the figure was a black figure image, it would be black with white outlines on a red [terra cotta] background. If using a program like Photoshop, you can easily create a black figure by doing your drawing with black ink, scanning it and go to "adjustments>invert" which makes black white and white black.
- Every figure has his or her name (originally done in Greek, of course, but you may do yours in English) floating by the figure.
- To see other adaptations of red and black figure work, check out The Iliad Study Guide or The Odyssey Study Guide.
- To learn more about the kind of costumes the figures would have worn, check out the following sites:
To see examples of some red figure model tracings, click on the picture. To download samples in the appropriate size, click on the pictures and save the pictures on your computer. Then print them.
