From 1985-1988 Melchert served as Director of The American Academy of Rome. He requested a studio as a condition of his employment. For drawings he made while in Rome, he established a “score” for each drawing—a set of parameters within which he proceeded:

1. The photographs would be of sites where he had never been.
2. He would look only at the photograph while drawing.
3. He would redraw each photo on the same sheet of paper a minimum of thirty times.
4. He used only conte crayon or graphite.

He lived surrounded by the drawings, meditating on them, working on several at a time. He was concerned with rendering the images as accurately as possible, yet the resultant images appear abstract. He titled them only by location: Lebanon, Palermo, Budapest, etc. The drawings seem barely to contain the physicality that went into their creation. “I drew on easels propped upright,” explained Melchert, “so I always stood while drawing. I wanted to draw large, from the shoulder; I wanted to get my whole body into the work.”