CHARCOAL ON SMOOTH NEWSPRINT
CLICK ON PIC
Recent studies of rapid eye
movements have come to the conclusion that artists actually see differently than
non-artists. According to this study, the non-artists tend to concentrate on
focal points of a scene while the artists tend to look everywhere, and have
more of an “overall” approach to seeing.
Quick gesture drawing is a way of
training the eye to see in this “overall” manner. As an art student this was
never adequately explained to me. Like a musician who must train his ear before
making music an artist needs to train his eyes before he can make art.
A 1-2 minute figurative gesture
drawing forces the student to look at everything at once to capture the gesture
of the pose in the limited time available. He has no time to focus on a
particular area. This is a painful mind altering exercise that over time changes
the way one perceives the world.
The materials and speed of this
activity are chosen to least inhibit the students from falling back into their
focal pointing ways. Because of this, the drawings are done on
large smooth newsprint paper, using soft charcoal pencils or conte crayons at arm’s length to the paper. This keeps them
loose with their arms moving and eyes active with no chance of falling back
into the tight constricted world of the Focal pointers.
From
a practical standpoint the gestural drawing has been utilized by illustrators
and artists for years "in the field" to capture enough information to complete
the composition back in their studios.
Two examples of quick gesture
drawings done for visual information are shown below. The first is a simple ink
study done by Rembrandt. The second is by Alfred Waud, an American Civil War correspondent.
A good artist can take his simple
gesture drawing and work it into a complete finished drawing. Likewise a “worthy”
artist can take another “worthy” artist’s gesture drawing and work it into a finished drawing as well.
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| Borrowed from: Library of Congress |
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