The Energetic Line

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Man with Stick'

Conté Crayon on Paper

Years ago, when I was teaching drawing etc, the college had a visit from a couple of inspectors. (They went around in pairs in those days, like patrolling policemen, and probably for the same reason - safety!). 

I caught one of them scrutinising, from about four inches distance, a student's life drawing which was displayed on the wall. Noticing me, and obviously wanting to help, he told me that the lines of the drawing, although accurate in placement and proportion, lacked energy. And he then suggested that it was imperative that I should 'get into' each student's work, spend every available second with them, and push them consistently towards developing a more incisive and expressive line.

And I must say I entirely agreed.

Twelve months later and the same two chaps came along to inspect and advise again. 

After a fairly standard inspection tour, I thought I would bend their ears about things that they may wish to help us with. So I mentioned the massive amount of paper work (largely prompted by successive government 'initiatives') that I and my fellow lecturers were increasingly collapsing beneath. 

The helpful chap who, the previous year, suggested the necessity for second-by-second attention to each individual student, thought for a minute, and then suggested that we, the staff, should perhaps try introducing the 'work brief' to the students, and then disappear for the duration of the session to the staffroom, where we could catch up with the paperwork!

Needless to say I was fairly stunned by this sudden turnaround in teaching advice in the space of a year, although it seems only fair to grant some admiration to the inspectorates ability to re-shape their pedagogical philosophies so cheerfully to conform with the ever-evolving government dictat.

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Back View of Man'

Conté Crayon on Paper

However, apart from the inspectors questionable oscillation, I do think that the particular advice about achieving an energetic and expressive line is absolutely right.

In 'Man with Stick' above I was very aware that the lines delineating the body should, at the least, suggest the three-dimensionality of the form, but should also do so in an energetic way. 

Bearing in mind that any line drawing is a type of created illusion, in that, obviously, any three dimensional form does not actually have a line around it - we simply use the line as a kind of descriptive shorthand. 

But if we make a line which is uniform in character, (like the lines that we see when someone has traced a photograph for example) then it is not a line which is sensitive to all the tensions, the stresses, the movement, etc, of the human form.

So every line should have a primary descriptive purpose, but it should also be sensitive to the movement and flow of the body; the hardness and softness; the near and the far; and should therefore have a life of it's own.

Here's a couple of drawings (Rembrandt and Degas), both showing a wonderful sensitivity and variety in the use of line to explore the form of a figure.

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

Whose eyes are these, I wonder?

(The answer will be in the next posting.)

And here's the answer from the last posting -

'Interior in Paddington'.  

by Lucian Freud, 1951, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

"Inspiration is a byproduct of discipline......simply getting up everyday and planning, plotting, sketching, setting up or actually applying paint to a painting." 

Beverly Claridge

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. . . . and now, a Recommended Read . . . .

The Conquest of New Mexico.

by Bernal Diaz

I've read this book a couple of times, once many years ago and again fairly recently. It is a vivid account of the almost unbelievable invasion and conquest of the Aztec empire by a small group of Spanish adventurers led by Hernan Cortes. It is written by one of the participants so, inevitably, it is a one-sided account, but is still genuinely amazing and gripping. Unmissable.

'The indomitable Diaz delivers his chronicle first-hand, vividly describing the ruthless battles, the brilliant Machiavellian strategies of Cortes, and the superstitious vacillations of Montezuma that lead to the momentous overthrow of the Aztec civilisation. 

Despite the supremacy of their weapons and armour, the Spanish "Conquistadors" overcame astonishing odds to achieve victory. Numbering only around 500, but powerfully motivated by a lust for gold and honor, the Spanish succeeded in either defeating or outwitting armies that numbered in the tens of thousands, before laying siege to Tenochtitlan - at the time the largest city in the known world. 

This is a truly astonishing text - all the more so for being true - and is both essential and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in World History'.   

Kindle Review. 

Published on Penguin Classics (+ others)

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