I started to study charcoal portraits with the head of the Aphrodite of Cnide , known as head Kaufmann:

I observed the original sculpture in the Louvre museum in Paris and then worked with charcoals from a reference photography. I then turned to morphology, with the Écorché de Houdon, which is conserved at Villa Médicis, in the French academy in Rome. I founded references in volume 15 of the excellent encyclopedia Peindre et dessiner edited by Larousse in 1995: it just got an used version of the complete collection, with 120 volumes and 30 videos for 50 euros. Finally, I got a a 3D printing of it in resin of about 40cm high. Here is the result:

I used sanguine and some color pastel pencils. I then switched to the Vénus de Milo, that I also observed in the Louvre museum in Paris. Finally, I drew the David by Micheangelo which is exposed in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence while a copy is still in the street, in front of the palazzo Vecchio. I founded a free 3D computer's model of it in the amazing wikimedia project.

Charcoal and pastel, about 65x50cm.