Statue of Liberty

TECHNICAL ART

This Statue of Liberty drawing was the first stage of a larger project. The end product was an embossed print of Lady Liberty, suitable for framing. A sculpted die was needed for the process, but before one could be made, an accurate, highly detailed line drawing was needed.

At left, in addition to the final line art, enlarged portions depict the the details of the head and upper gown, as well as the torch. Lower right, we see two (of many) reference photos showing the toes, and the broken chains and shackle. At lower left, we see the framed, embossed final art. It is hard to see in this image, but a foil was added to the flame portion of the torch. The middle image shows some of the detail in the feet, chains, shackle, and lower gown of Lady Liberty. The lower image shows some of the detail of the final embossed art.

Many replicas of the Statue of Liberty are available, but most lack the fine detail and beauty of the original article. Tedious research was conducted to make the drawing as detailed and accurate as humanly possible. As many artists know, drawing or painting a subject often requires an intensive educational experience to get to know the subject intimately.

Reference images came from so many places, the majority of which were from the U S Library of Congress and The New York State Parks Commission. The latter loaned us a CD with dozens of close up images that revealed the subject in intricate detail.

For this drawing, everything had to be exactly right. Photographs were studied, sketches were drawn, and the final drawing was done in Illustrator. The final step in completing the drawing was figuring out the range of line weights needed for the engraver. Several versions with different line weights were provided.