So, the first lesson of this book echoes recurring themes of the last: practise regularly, and don’t mind making mistakes in the process. Mistakes are not bad so long as you correct them as soon as you see them. You will find that assessing your ability will help you make you more objective about your work. However, this new knowledge won’t happen overnight, so be patient. And remember: the time you spend altering your drawings to improve them is never lost — that is how you will improve your skills.
Above all, don’t give up. Steady hard work often accomplishes more than talent.
One invaluable practice is to draw regularly from life. That is, drawing the objects, people, landscapes and details around you. These have an energy and atmosphere that only personal engagement with them can capture. Photographs or other representations are inadequate substitutes and should only be used as a last resort as reference.
Always have a sketch-book or two and use them as often as possible. Constant sketching will sharpen your drawing skills and keep them honed.
Dont’ throw away your drawings for at least a year after you’ve finished them. At that distance you can be more objective about their merits or failings, and have a clear idea of which ones work and which ones don’t. In the white-hot creative moment you don’t actually know whether what you’ve done is any good or not. You are too attached to your end result. Later on you’ll be more detached and be clearer in your judgement.
Michelangelo’s deep knowledge of anatomy enabled him to produce almost tactile effect in his life drawing. He shows that there are no real hollows in the human form, merely dips between the mounds of muscles. This is worth noting by any student drawing from life and will give more conviction to your drawing.
His understanding of when to add emphasis and when to allow the slightest marks to do the work is masterly.
Holbein has achieved this quality by drastically reducing the modelling of the form and putting in just enough information to make the eye accept his untouched areas as the surfaces of the face. We tend to see what we expect to see. A good artist uses this to his advantage. So, less is more.
The drawings of Rembrandt probably embody all the qualities that any modern artist would wish to possess. His quick sketches are dashing, evocative and capture a fleeting action or emotion with enormous skill. His more careful drawings are like architecture, with every part of the structure clear and working one hundred percent. Notice how his line varies with intention, sometimes putting in the least possible and at other times leaving nothing to chance. What tremendous skill!
His expertise is evident in the elegant and apparently easily drawn figures he drew from life. When we look at them, it seems that somehow we can already draw like this or perhaps we never shall.
He believed that his work should show the essential characteristics of the subject matter he was portraying. This meant that the elemental power and vigour of the scene, people or objects should be transmitted to the viewer in the most immediate way possible. His virogous, lively drawings are more concerned with capturing life than including minuscule details for the sake of it.
The skill evident in his paintings and drawings came out of continuous practice. He declared that his epitaph should be: “He greatly loved drawing.” He would often trace and retrace his own drawings in order to get the movement and grace he was after. Hard work and constant efforts to improve his methods honed his natural talent.
Renoir could be called the man who loved women. His pictures of young women, dressed or undressed, are some of the sweetest drawings of the female form ever produced. He always has the painter’s eye and sacrifices any details to the main effect of the picture. When he does produce a detail, it is extremely telling and sets the tone for the rest of the picture.
There is no substitute of observation in drawing. When you look long and hard at anything that you wish to draw, ask yourself the question, “What am I seeing?” Look at color, shape, form, texture, outline and movement. These apply to everything visual and help you to analyze your impressions, which can assist your seeing. However, keep looking, even when you think you know what you’re looking at. Nothing stays the same for more than a few seconds; the light change, for example, giving you a new version of what you’re looking at, even if it’s only a still form. The exciting thing about all this is that you never get bored. There is infinite variety, even in familiar scenes that we see every day.
The sort of chequer-board floor or pavement you have been learning about has often been used in paintings to help the illusion of depth. In early Renaissance pictures it was thought to be amazingly realistic.
What the eye sees is shape, color, light and shade, and not much else. However, the mind goes to work on the experience, relates it to other experiences and translates the shape and form into something we can recognize, such as a man, woman, horse, dog, tree, house or whatever.
The head of Michelangelo’s “David” in Florence symbolizes the defiance of that city towards the hostile autocracies by which it was surrounded.
A breaking wave used as a metaphor for exhilaration is not new.
A beautiful still lake with reflections and calm skies seen in morning or evening light gives the feeling of serenity, especially with the small native boat being propelled smoothly, without haste, across the surface of the water.
If you want to make your work convincing, look at the created world around you. Don’t view it exclusively through the medium of photography, television or video. Personal experience will lend a power and knowledge to your work that not only informs you as the artist but also the reviewers of your work. This is very apparent when you look at the work of an artist who has actually experienced at first hand the things he draws. It is also pretty clear to the observant viewer when an artist is only working from second-hand sources, because their drawings tend to lack power.
To achieve realism in your drawings, start by observing plants in detail; even if you live in an urban environment you should be able to find a wide variety to study. You can then move on to animals and human beings. Don’t worry about posing them to begin with; just observing them will pay off if you are reasonably systematic about recording what you see so that it remains in your memory.
Observe, too, the effects of light falling on people and objects and how the effects of distance and weather create interesting changes in subject matter. Everything you see and note can be used to advantage in your work. All you need is the time and opportunity to take it all in.
This whole drawing is made up of the sky and its reflection in the river below. The lone boat in the lower foreground helps to give a sense of scale. Although the trees are obviously quite tall in this view, everything is subordinated to the space of the sky, defined by the clouds, and the reflected space in the water. The boat and a few ripples are there to tell the viewer that it is water and not just air. The effect of this vast space and mirror is to generate awe in the viewer.
The effect of beams of sunlight striking through clouds has a remarkable effect in a picture, and can give a feeling of life and beauty to even a quite banal landscape.
Don’t try to look at everything. Wait until something really arouses your attention, and then give it your full attention. Spend at least three minutes just looking in detail at everything in the picture, without commenting. Then your questioning of what is in front of you will be very useful in clarifying your understanding.