N.B., Click on images to zoom.
'Sleeping Woman'
Oil Pastel on Paper
Usually when an artist shows examples of his or her work, they are chosen because they are thought to be good examples. This is the most pleasant and safest approach to exhibiting.
However I also think it's useful to see examples of work that have not been terribly successful, as both the artist, and the spectator, can learn something. The artist can learn a little humility amongst other things, and the spectator can very often learn more by seeing mistakes than by seeing a picture which looks 'perfect'.
This oil pastel drawing (above) is, for me, a fairly extended study (i.e., around four hours). Yet, on looking at the drawing a couple of days later, I realised that the proportions are not too clever. I have drawn the models head (only slightly, I hope) too large. I realise that the head is tilted backwards, so there is rather a longish neck to be seen, but the bonce still looks too large.
It's well known that Renaissance artists tended to consider accurate proportion as a prime basis of good drawing.
Well, I'm afraid on this particular occasion, I missed out.
N.B., Click on images to zoom.
'Quick Figure Sketches'
Conté Crayon on Paper
Here's another one (above) in which the proportions don't seem to work. I think the body of the front figure is slightly too long. As is the neck.
I know they are very quick sketches, but it's in the early stages of a drawing that I usually try to establish the proportions and 'gesture' of the figure, so that all the subsequent over-working and details are soundly based.
Irritatingly, I quite like the drawing, - the figures seem to work in terms of energy and liveliness, - but the lack of accurate proportions means that it will never be satisfactory.
Grrrrrrrr.........
And of course it's worthwhile occasionally, as an exercise in ego-management, to put one of your own drawings next to a drawing by one of the greats. If you can do it without bruising your ego too violently, the exercise does give one an awareness of proportion in a different sense.
So, to prove the point, (and not just to provide an inexpensive chortle), I've put a sheet of exquisite drawings below in the 'details' quiz. That'll teach me!
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details............” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
Who drew this sheet of studies, and in preparation for which painted figure?
(The answer will be in the next posting.)
And here's the answer from the last posting -
'The City Rises'
Umberto Boccioni. 1910. MOMA.
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details............” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
"The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval."
Denis Waitley