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artamaze by Katherine Hilden

It's about the pleasure of drawing. You can do this. You can learn to draw with passion and conviction.

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Facing the Portrait with Henry Raeburn, 4

MaryRaeburn

Raeburn’s portrait of Robert Brown hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I admire it at every visit.  It is painterly, with quick, sure dashes of the brush: look at the hair, the edge of the collar.

Of all the student copies of this portrait (up-side-down) this drawing, by Mary, is most “painterly.”

When we see lines in a drawing or painting, our attention traces the line and we feel assured of clarity and rationality.  Lines delineate shapes, orient us and tell us what’s what.

Notice, there are no lines in Mary’s drawing.  Everything is effect, shades of gray, nuance. Imagine navigating over your drawing paper without the guidance of lines.  It takes intense concentration. This is quite an achievement.

When we draw portraits we are not satisfied with mere accuracy of facial features.  We always read the emotion in the face.  When you consider that this drawing was done up-side-down, is it not astonishing how such a process can result in such depth of emotion?

To review how this drawing exercise was set up, visit

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/facing-the-portrait-with-henry-raeburn-1/

To compare other students’ work:

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/facing-the-portrait-with-henry-raeburn-3/

https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/facing-the-portrait-with-henry-raeburn-2/

 

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.katherinehilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

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www.khilden.com

 

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  • About me:

    I'm an artist, living and working in Evanston, IL, and I teach drawing and painting at the Evanston Art Center. Initially, this blog was only about drawing, because that's my great passion. But I soon branched out into all topics related to art. Now I talk about discoveries in my drawing and painting classes, as well as museum and gallery visits, the art scene, my own work and whatever I think will tickle your art-mind because it tickles mine...as if there were another kind of mind.----------------- Your comments are welcome!
  • Portrait of the artist with art, Evanston Art Center benefit, 2010

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