Legs

 

pencil on bond paper

GARRET

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Wallace Morgan

Wallace Morgan

I scanned the above page from the book,” Forty Illustrators and How They Work” by Ernest William Watson. 

Wallace Morgan was a combat artist during WW1. These are quick visual notations that were made "on the spot". Nothing is more important than quick gesture drawing skills when you are being shot at. For an explanation of gesture drawing click here.  These rough sketches have all the necessary information needed for the artist to flesh them out into complete illustrations, well behind the danger of the front lines.

 

Wallace Morgan circa 1918

Sculpture Ideas That Will Never Happen or Are Yet to Be

Here are two drawings from Garret’s file labeled, Sculpture Ideas That Will Never Happen or Are Yet to Be. To see other drawing from this file click here and here.

GARRET

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J.C. Leyendecker

J.C. Leyendecker

It’s an age-old process for art students to copy the work of the masters. The student will learn more from this practice then any art school assignment, lecture or book.

 For years students have been studying the artwork of the great American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker. Leyendecker had what seemed an ease to his virtuoso application of paint. It is this ellusive technique that the students of art have been trying to figure out. For a look at a copy of a Leyendecker I did, click here

The above drawing, although credited to Leyendecker, may be a student study after his original painting. The next image is a close-up of the  original Leyendecker  illustration below.

Click the following link to see more of his paintings with close-ups provided. Haggin Museum's Leyendecker exhibit

Thanks to Augie Pagan for the above photo

Leyendecker in 1895

From Wikipedia
Born	March 23, 1874 Montabaur, Rhine Province, German Empire
Died	July 25, 1951 (aged 77) New Rochelle, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Education	Chicago Art Institute, Académie Julian

Photographic Distortion no. 1

GARRET 

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The drawing above is from a photo I took at the Jamestown historic site many years ago.

When drawing from photographs it is best to be aware of the many distortions caused by the camera so you can compensate accordingly.

Unlike the camera, the human eye can only focus on one area of a subject at a time. However, the camera can create an image in which the entire scene is in focus.This is contrary to the way we see. 

Through rapid eye movements and split second focusing ability, we are given the illusion that we see the whole world in focus at once.  Not so. At the next social or business event you’re forced to go to, stare at the nose of the guy you're pretending to listen to without moving your eyeballs. Notice that the peripheral areas on all sides of his nose are slightly blurry. An artist who utilizes this phenomenon in his drawings or paintings it will create a depth of form to his work.

If an artist religiously copies a photo that has a focal range of infinity where everything is in sharp focus, it will result in flatness to his work.

A hard edge will visually travel to the picture plane which causes this flatness, where a soft edge will recede into space giving the illusion of depth.

In future blog postings, I will discuss other photographic distortions to be wary of when drawing.