In the recent posts about The Contour and Leonardo’s sfumato I said that a drawing can be described as “painterly.” The difference between linear and painterly is this: a linear style outlines the figure and separates it from the ground; in a painterly work, the figure and the ground flow into one another. In studying Western art, the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945) noticed that the earlier art is linear and then in the 16th century, the line opens up and the image becomes painterly. You can find the whole theory in his “Principles of Art History,” a book that is surprisingly lively and readable, considering when it was written.
Contemporary art teachers wouldn’t go into that kind of scholarship—and I don’t, in class. Basically, what we want to get at is, “Hey, everybody—loosen up!” Easier said than done. The tendency for beginning students (as with our ancestors) is to firmly outline your subject. Opening up the contour is far from being sloppy. It involves a whole other way of seeing and thinking. You see the contour and visualize it as you draw, but you don’t state it directly. This requires tremendous concentration and getting to that ability to concentrate takes practice over time.
Here, then, is Linné’s recent drawing from a model. I sometimes blow up my students’ drawings at the Xerox machine so that they can appreciate their own progress. It’s also helpful to isolate one passage, such as the head, in order to take it out of context. Cropping your drawing like this helps you focus on the qualities in your drawing, rather than your representational skills.
Learning to draw can often be discouraging, but actually you’re better than you think. You develop not gradually, but in spurts and part of my job is to help you notice that you just made a spurt.
Yeah!
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 