Students very often think that a drawing is a one-shot deal. The standard class time is three hours and that should be enough to work out the still life set up on the table or the model on the stand. They tend to think this. But I try to encourage them to develop certain drawings. A three-hour graphite drawing, for example, can be imagined in another medium, in charcoal, in an aquarellable pencil or with a watercolor wash. Or it can invite an emphasis on forms derived from shapes that are only faintly suggested in the first drawing. The first drawing might have too much detail and may invite a bold, simple linear quality instead.
Here is a drawing inspired by a family photo from the forties. Gaby actually worked from a Xerox enlargement, 8-1/2 x 11, because old photos tend to be quite small. The second—developed–drawing is shown above. Notice how version #2 differs from version #1, shown below.
The second drawing departs from the literalness of the first which already had moved away from the literalness of the photo.
The developed drawing (#2
) unifies the figures by making the lines where they touch ambiguous. By creating contrapposto lines in the shoulders and midsections (pink), the artist makes the two people appear as one, an ingenious invention that adds emotional intensity and compositional focus. The woman’s hemline in version #1, while very energetic(green), cut the figure abruptly and kept her from relating to her sailor. Can’t have that. Gaby eliminates the triangular pleat work and lengthens the skirt, all in the interest of harmony. The result shows the couple as graceful and heroic.
Are you allowed to do that? Yessss! Because you’re creating a work of art.
If you’re commissioned to duplicate an old photo, you better not think this way. Just hunker down and scribble away. But that’s not what we do here and certainly not when we develop a drawing.
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 