This Series of studies was done as a part of the Richard Ford Award which I was selected for while at University undertaking a BA in Fine Art Drawing at Camberwell Collage of Art. The Richard Ford Award comprised of a month long residency in Madrid drawing from the collection of the Museo Del Prado, the National Gallery of Spain. I executed studies of works by Artist including Velazquez, Goya Ribera and El Greco, I primarily focussed on the theme that I felt that I could see spanning much of the collection, something I felt embodied the pre Spanish Republic character. Inherited from the Catholic focus on Martyrdom, mixed with an Iberian sense of romance and moorish ideas of Masculinity. The pieces I completed range in styles and you can see the experimentation in the varying outcomes from Goya's Black Paintings often done with heavy fast strokes of graphite stick to the far more sensitive studies of Velazquez's Royal Portraits to the combination of these methods in the Martyrdoms of Ribera. This Experience has proved invaluable and helped my sense of composition and ability as a draftsman.