Sargent and Reflected Light

We copied the Millais drawing (see previous post) and Sargent’s drawing of Yeats in one three-hour class meeting. The Millais drawing had a limited value range, meaning the shades of gray were close together and there was no deep black. The Sargent drawing, by contrast, gives us intense black and gradations of equally assertive gray. […]

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Reflected Light? Let’s Not Go There.

Yes, why is that? (Continued from previous post.) The drawing of the cylinder in the class demo was about 2” high. Everybody stood around and watched how I did it and listened to the straight-forward explanation of how this works. It took 2-3 minutes. So quick, so easy. Students love the effect created by the […]

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Caravaggio and Reflected Light

By the middle of the 16th century the Protestant reformers were raging against Catholic dogma and inspiring their followers to ransack old churches, destroying stained glass windows, murals, paintings, statues, tapestries and candelabras. The Catholic hierarchy fought back and stood its ground. The battle of the Counter Reformation was so serious that the pope convened […]

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Reflections on Reflected Light

If you want to create the illusion of roundness in either painting or drawing, you need to study how light plays on a round object.  Here’s the textbook analysis of a sphere being hit by light from the upper left and casting a shadow on the lover right. You can memorize this image and its […]

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Reflected Light

When Fredéric Bazille (1841-1870) paints his sleeve, he  wants to create the illusion of roundness and therefore he has to show a sliver of reflected light.             ——————————————————————————————– In the engraving of The Death of Mary, Martin Schongauer (1450-1491) stops his burin (engraving tool) before he gets to the edge […]

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Riffing on Chardin

Copying an admired work of art is a highly recommended exercise for any art student and for any artist at any age.  We know that as a student Matisse spent many days at the Louvre copying paintings,  by Chardin, for example, and that he continued the practice as a mature artist. Or take Picasso.  In […]

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Still Life with Peaches, Pear and Cup, 3

All the drawings in this set of still lifes are fascinating to me. This one holds my attention because it reminds me of what happens when an advanced artist gives a demonstration of what children’s art looks like and then makes very sophisticated marks anyway. The childlike quality in the above still life is in […]

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Still Life with Peaches, Pear, and Cup, 2

  A drawing can go through many stages of development. The artist may not aim for mimesis or may not have a particular style in mind at all.  The artist may try one kind of markmaking here and another style  there.  The drawing may develop with a progression from dark to light or various degrees […]

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Still Life with Peaches, Pear, and Cup, 1

In the next few posts we will see drawings by six students. The motif was a still life showing everyday kitchen objects.   We were working from a photo of a famous painting by a famous 18th century French painter– to be introduced after you’ve seen all six student drawings. I’m showing the drawings first because […]

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Facing the Portrait with Henry Raeburn, 3

Students gasped when this drawing was turned around, to be seen right-side-up. It was drawn up-side-down, remember. Btw,  No student cheated by turning the drawing right-side-up before it was finished. When you’re drawing up-side-down, you enter a state of –hello!—pure seeing.  Sounds corny, but the name of this class is simply Drawing as Seeing.  It’s […]

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