It’s possible to fall in love with the line on a page. A line drawn by someone else - an Old Master or New, but all the sweeter if it’s yours and one you’ve strived over many years to achieve.
Life drawing is like that for me - There is nothing better than having that dusty charcoal in your hand, empty, slightly intimidating blank page in front of you, a real live person posing for you, your cohorts nearby - the timer sounds and you begin - the earnest quiet of shared endeavor, sounds of crayon on rough newsprint - get the gesture, don’t render details until you get the structure right, hips, shoulder girdle; each person in his own world of concentrated effort and discovery. No place I’d rather be. In almost all the towns I’ve lived over the past 50 years, I’ve joined a life drawing class. From the more traditional art schools: Art Students League and National Academy School in New York to the smallest group of 5 or 6 in someone’s home around a posed person, our easels and drawing pads poised for action. It’s always the same excitement: that collective effort- each with his own style, experience, seeing as each is seeing - trying to get it right, or at least something that pleases.
Of course, figure drawing has been going on for centuries - the starting point of an art education. Having a living, breathing person in front of you instead of a vase, some peaches and a draped cloth changes the dynamic completely. The air is charged with something engaging and unpredictable - you are in a connection with the subject that demands a new attentiveness and the illusive struggle begins.
Learning anatomy, composition, volume, proportion, gesture, line, training the eye to see what is really there takes time and dedication. It’s a coordination and a bringing it all together much as any musician or athlete draws upon his or her years of practice to achieve success. And it does take practice. For those of us in the game, years of practice makes that worth it because every now and then something magical happens.
Look at any of the major artists of the recent past - abstract or otherwise - Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, and, indeed, Marshall Fredericks. They all started with the basics - and life drawing. And knowing that unless you understand and thoroughly render it realistically, it is hard to create something stylized or abstract with any real authority. A valuable tool in the toolbox. And, of course, there you are, following in the footsteps of the great Masters - with that pad of paper and charcoal or crayon - just as they did on their road to mastery.
So you wait for those sublime moments when you’ve caught something that moves you - insertions of neck to torso, strong translation of leg to hip, a coordination of lines that makes it come alive and creates an emotional reaction - and, like a golfer who hits a perfect shot - you’re off and running - after the vanishing horizon of the perfect line.
Essay by Michaele Duffy Kramer
Life drawing is like that for me - There is nothing better than having that dusty charcoal in your hand, empty, slightly intimidating blank page in front of you, a real live person posing for you, your cohorts nearby - the timer sounds and you begin - the earnest quiet of shared endeavor, sounds of crayon on rough newsprint - get the gesture, don’t render details until you get the structure right, hips, shoulder girdle; each person in his own world of concentrated effort and discovery. No place I’d rather be. In almost all the towns I’ve lived over the past 50 years, I’ve joined a life drawing class. From the more traditional art schools: Art Students League and National Academy School in New York to the smallest group of 5 or 6 in someone’s home around a posed person, our easels and drawing pads poised for action. It’s always the same excitement: that collective effort- each with his own style, experience, seeing as each is seeing - trying to get it right, or at least something that pleases.
Of course, figure drawing has been going on for centuries - the starting point of an art education. Having a living, breathing person in front of you instead of a vase, some peaches and a draped cloth changes the dynamic completely. The air is charged with something engaging and unpredictable - you are in a connection with the subject that demands a new attentiveness and the illusive struggle begins.
Learning anatomy, composition, volume, proportion, gesture, line, training the eye to see what is really there takes time and dedication. It’s a coordination and a bringing it all together much as any musician or athlete draws upon his or her years of practice to achieve success. And it does take practice. For those of us in the game, years of practice makes that worth it because every now and then something magical happens.
Look at any of the major artists of the recent past - abstract or otherwise - Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, and, indeed, Marshall Fredericks. They all started with the basics - and life drawing. And knowing that unless you understand and thoroughly render it realistically, it is hard to create something stylized or abstract with any real authority. A valuable tool in the toolbox. And, of course, there you are, following in the footsteps of the great Masters - with that pad of paper and charcoal or crayon - just as they did on their road to mastery.
So you wait for those sublime moments when you’ve caught something that moves you - insertions of neck to torso, strong translation of leg to hip, a coordination of lines that makes it come alive and creates an emotional reaction - and, like a golfer who hits a perfect shot - you’re off and running - after the vanishing horizon of the perfect line.
Essay by Michaele Duffy Kramer
TRY YOUR HAND AT DRAWING WITH These ACTIVITies
Sculptural Figure Drawing
Choose one of the sculptural figures below to draw. The high definition videos below can be paused at any location to allow you to sketch. Enlarge videos to full screen for best viewing. Share your drawings with us on Facebook.
Choose one of the sculptural figures below to draw. The high definition videos below can be paused at any location to allow you to sketch. Enlarge videos to full screen for best viewing. Share your drawings with us on Facebook.
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Blind Contour and Reverse Value Drawing
Click on the images above to try your hand at blind contour and reverse value drawing. Use the virtual museum to choose a sculpture to draw.
Click on the images above to try your hand at blind contour and reverse value drawing. Use the virtual museum to choose a sculpture to draw.
Blind Contour Drawing
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Reverse Value Drawing
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