One of the reasons we draw from still lifes is that they are so forgiving. A pot looks just as convincing whether you draw it fat or 
skinny. Drapery can be pushed and pulled and ironed out. This forgiveness leaves us free to experiment with the feeling of the drawing itself, feeling that comes from line quality, dynamics of light and dark, rhythm and composition.
Working from this pile of round forms and edges, the artist could have chosen to draw any passage in great detail. He chose, instead, to draw the sweep of the whole arrangement. It formed and arc. As he drew from left to right, some aspects captivated him more than others and he shaded them for greater emphasis, time being 
limited, after all. Limited time is a good thing. Because with more time, more details might have been filled in and we would have lost this lovely arc. The drawing now has not only content, which anybody can get with due diligence, but also form, which comes out of a deeper crinkle of your brain. Tickling that crinkle is more than half the trick.
Charles Stern, graphite on paper, ~12” x 16”
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 
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