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Overview
In this book, Bert Dodson shares his complete drawing system—fifty-five "keys" that you can use to render any subject with confidence, even if you're a beginner.
These keys, along with dozens of practice exercises, will help you draw like an artist in no time.
You'll learn how to:
• Restore, focus, map, and intensify
• Free your hand action, then learn to control it
• Convey the illusions of light, depth, and texture
• Stimulate your imagination through "creative play"
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781440308673 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 08/15/1990 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Group |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Sales rank: | 596,072 |
| File size: | 33 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
THE DRAWING PROCESS
INTERNALIZING PRACTICAL DIALOGUE • TRIGGERING WORDS •DRAWING BLIND •RESTATING •SEEING vs. KNOWING •INDIVIDUALIZING •SQUINTING •SHAPE CONSCIOUSNESS •FOCUSING
An internal dialogue
The art of drawing is an act of uncanny coordination between the hand, the eye, and the mind. Each of these is subject to training and habit. For many students, improvement in drawing simply lies in breaking bad habits and replacing them with new and useful ones. For example, what do you think of as you draw? Can you remember? Perhaps your mind wanders. Perhaps you think of nothing at all. If you are like most of us though, you do, from time to time, carry on an internal dialogue as you work. This dialogue will either help or hinder your ability to draw, depending on which of two basic types it is.
Critical Dialogue
"That arm doesn't look right."
"The foot couldn't possibly turn that way."
"I never draw the legs right."
"Why do I have so much trouble drawing faces?"
Practical Dialogue
"What does that shape look like?"
"Is that shoulder line horizontal or slightly tilted?"
"Is the distance from knee to foot greater or less than the distance from knee to waist?"
"How bumpy is that contour?"
You can probably see the difference between these two types of dialogue and you may agree that the practical is preferable to the critical. Even if you already have the critical dialogue habit, it's not hard to break.
Where do you look when you draw? Do you look at your drawing or at your subject? If you're not sure, try this experiment. As you draw, have someone watch your eyes. Do they rest mostly on the drawing or on the subject? This is an important question and a key to improvement. If they focus primarily on your subject, you will draw better than if the focus is on your drawing. Why is this so? Let's go back to the two types of dialogue. When you focus on the drawing, especially in its early stages, you are judging your efforts. This leads to a self-involved, self-analytical, critical mode; things in the drawing are "wrong" or "just don't look right." You may be tempted to rely on formulas and techniques you already know rather than to draw what you actually see. You may become impatient. Beginning students often become lost or confused when relying on critical dialogue. It beats down on the head like Chinese water torture and, eventually, can take all the pleasure out of drawing.
Practical dialogue results when you are focused primarily on the subject. This is really a dialogue between you and the subject, giving you information about shapes, angles, and measurements that you can translate into lines on paper.
Sometimes practical internal dialogue is no more than the repetition of a single word that describes the feeling in your subject that you are trying to capture and then convey. Called triggering words, they help you stay in the moment. Saying a word like "angular," "sharp," "long," "rounded," "intricate," or "bristly" softly to yourself (often repeatedly) as your hand moves on the paper, keeps you in contact with your feelings about what you are seeing and makes it easier to actually create that effect.
Looking, holding, drawing a line
Drawing can be described quite simply: look at the subject and take note of a contour or shape; hold that contour or shape in your mind for a moment, and draw it while it's still fresh in memory. Look, hold, draw. Look, hold, draw. Notice we do not include "Think about it" in this sequence. In fact, drawing can be viewed as a process which usually bypasses conscious thought and knowledge. Artist and author Frederick Frank, in his book, My Eye is in Love, expressed it this way: "All the hand has to be is the unquestioning seismograph that notes down something, the meaning of which it knows not. The less the conscious personality of the artist interferes, the more truthful and personal the tracing becomes."
The illustrations at left depict the drawing process in sequence. We look at the subject, two feet (fig. 1), note a contour at the toe of the higher foot, and begin to trace that line (fig. 2) on the paper. Now back to the subject (fig. 3); we estimate where this line intersects the other foot and draw this (fig. 4). Look, hold, draw. Look, hold, draw. A natural rhythm becomes established. The speed of your hand will vary as the contours vary.
Drawing blind
It is possible to compress the look-hold-draw process into a single action which we call drawing blind. In doing so, your hand continues to draw as your eyes remain on the subject. This often occurs instinctively as you become engrossed. But until it becomes a habit, you should train yourself to do this.
In Figure 3, we observe the contour of the second foot. In Figure 4, we begin to draw it. In Figure 7, we look back to the subject but leave the pencil in contact with the paper and continue drawing. Drawing blind is a valuable way to strengthen eye/hand coordination, and the result is a more sensitive recording of contours. There is some sacrifice in accurate proportions, however, so drawing blind is best done in short bursts interspersed with look-hold-draw. It is most effective in the early stages of drawing.
Project 1 - A — Feet
Make a drawing of your own crossed feet, stressing accurate contour and detail. Use line only — a sharp pencil, pen and ink, ballpoint pen, or felt-tip marker (fine point).
Sit comfortably with your crossed feet propped up in front of you and place your pad or paper on a support in your lap so that you have a clear view of your feet. Using the look-hold-draw process discussed here, represent the feet as closely as your observation permits. Be aware of looking at the subject more than at the drawing. Try "drawing blind" at least three or four times while working. Do not erase, but have two or more "restatements" in the drawing. Allow yourself at least one-half hour for the project.
Restating
Most of us have a negative attitude about our own mistakes. To a draughtsman, such an attitude is not helpful and will need to be reshaped. Trial and error are essential in drawing. You make lines and compare those to the contours of your subject. Distortions will no doubt occur, and some of these you will want to correct or adjust as you go. You could erase these lines, but it is usually better to leave them for now and simply draw the more accurate lines alongside. This we call "restating," and its advantages are two-fold: (1) You don't waste a lot of time erasing which you can better spend observing your subject, and (2) the drawing actually looks more alive and energetic with all of those restatements. The Degas drawing on page 51 has numerous restatements in the arms and torso. The drawing below is a mass of restatements.
In restatements, we can see the drawing process at work, the "feeling out" of forms, the searching out of more accurate contours, and the adjusting and correcting.
Seeing vs. knowing — a conflict
As you draw, you will often encounter conflicts between what you see and what you know. For example, in the quick sketch at right the boy's head was tipped down below his shoulders — "foreshortened" in our view. Foreshortening violates our expected view of things. The head is below the shoulders, touching the top of his trunk. Our natural temptation in this case is to "make things right" by drawing what we know instead of what we see. It's important to resist that temptation. Our goal in drawing from observation is to capture the richness and variety of visual experience. We should draw, for the time being at least, as if we know nothing, and were obedient only to what our eye tells us to draw. This is the key to natural, life-like drawing. To understand this is to understand that there is no such thing as knowing how to draw something. One hears, "Can you draw hands — or horses — or trees?" The answer is: we do not draw "things" at all, only lines. To reproduce objects we see on paper, we need to translate what we see into a useful language which we will call the language of lines. This language involves angles, shapes, tones and measurements, Any other language (the language of "things") is not of immediate use to us. Whenever we try to speak in two different languages simultaneously, the result is confusion.
The reader may argue, "OK, I see how knowledge of certain facts about something might prejudice us against seeing it clearly, but what about knowledge of drawing principles — perspective, anatomy, foreshortening, light and shadow? Doesn't this kind of knowledge help rather than hinder us in making a good drawing?" Indeed, these principles were developed to help us understand what we see. But they do not come first. Seeing comes first. When rules conflict with seeing, forget them and draw what you see. This is what is meant by retaining an "innocent vision." That is, to look at something as if you have never seen it before, and to be unclouded by assumptions about how a thing is supposed to look. The one simple rule to follow is: at each point of frustration or confusion, ask yourself, "What do I see?"
Squinting
If you've drawn at all, you've probably experienced times when you've been overwhelmed by the detail in your chosen subject. Squinting is an excellent way to simplify your subject and make it instantly manageable. Little wonder it's a device often used among artists. A useful habit, squinting is a key we will refer to frequently in this book.
What is it?
One of the hardest things to do in drawing is to force yourself to follow your vision when it just doesn't look right. Drawing your own hand from an end view creates such a conflict. We "know" a hand must have fingers, and that those fingers must have a certain length. Otherwise, as in this view, it "just doesn't look right." It doesn't match our preconceived hand symbol! It takes courage to stick to your vision in spite of how it looks. If you are to grow and develop as an artist, it is necessary to develop that courage.
Upon completing your drawing for Project 1B, study it a moment. If it looks a lot like a hand, you didn't keep your hand dead level with your eyes or you didn't follow your vision. (Or you are a truly excellent draughtsman.) If you gave much length to the fingers, you either held your hand too tilted while drawing it or you were drawing it from knowledge rather than from seeing. In either case, you have missed the conflict — the seeing vs. knowing — and should try it again.
Project 1 - B — Hand
Make a drawing of your own hand from the unusual end-view of the fingertips. That is, with the hand and fingers pointed directly towards your eyes. Stress accurate contour and detail. Use line only — sharp pencil, pen or fine point felt-tip marker. Tape your paper on a flat surface in front of you and hold your hand next to it about twelve inches or so from your eyes. Close one eye as you draw. Be aware of looking at the subject more than at your drawing. Try "drawing blind" at least three or four times as you work. Do not erase, but have two or more "restatements" in the drawing. Allow at least fifteen minutes for the project.
Try to keep an "innocent vision." That is, draw exactly what you see, but since this is an unconventional view of a hand be forewarned that the result will probably not look much like you expect a hand to look.
Seeing vs. knowing — mental images
We carry around with us mental images of the way things are supposed to look. These images are reconstructions from memory. We can easily imagine a potato or horse or the face of a good friend. Sometimes we feel that our mental image is an exact duplication of the real thing. If, however, we try to draw these mental images, we quickly realize that we don't have nearly enough information about shape, proportion, contour, or texture to do the job with much precision or character.
We can see this in these examples. The apples in the boxes are drawn from memory, the others are drawn from observation. The dramatic difference between each drawing is readily apparent and proves that mental images are really only symbols of reality. The mind couldn't possibly store all the information necessary to draw really convincing apples. Nor should it. That is a job for the eyes: following carefully each rounded contour, the maculated surface of its shiny skin the random imperfections, the play of light and shade & his information, which the eye alone provides, the hand can then readily follow.
Project 1 - C — Pepper
Make a pair of drawings of a green pepper. In the first drawing, create a mental image of the pepper and draw it as accurately as possible from that. Do the first drawing from memory without the pepper being present. Supply whatever details you can recall without having looked at it for some time. In the second drawing, place an actual pepper in front of you and draw it as accurately as you can while observing it. Use line and some tone (shading) for added realism. In the second drawing, try "drawing blind" at least three or four times. Include at least two restatements.
Use any drawing medium and allow yourself at least forty minutes for the two drawings. Make the drawing life size or larger.
Individualization
How inadequate is the memory when compared to the richness and variety of direct visual experience! The shapes, tones, and textures needed to draw convincing objects are conveyed through the eyes. We individualize by drawing from life.
Try to break old seeing habits by assuming nothing about your subject. Look at it with less logic and more curiosity. Override mental images and study the subject itself. Use practical dialogue to ask questions about the subject. Shift from the language of things to the language of line and shape. To individualize in your drawing the unique qualities of your subject gives your work verve and authority.
An exercise in individualizing
Try to get a mental image of your own eyes. You know that an eye is a ball set in a socket, surrounded by an upper and lower lid. The opening is almond or tear-drop shaped. Knowledge of these generalizations and a few details about iris, pupil, and lash would allow most people to draw a reasonably convincing pair of eyes, particularly from direct front view (see above).
However, unless you have practiced, it is doubtful that you could make a very accurate portrait of your own eyes or any other pair of eyes from memory. Moreover, when the head is tilted up or down or turned to a three-quarter view, the shapes of the eyes, lids, and brows change. Our mental images are inadequate to store all of this information.
Now stop and take a moment to view your own eyes in a mirror. As you study their shapes and contours, try to answer these questions:
• Are the two eyes exactly alike or are there subtle differences? If different, what are those differences?
• Are your eyes more or less than one eye-width apart?
• How much of the exposed eye does the iris cover? One third? One half?
• What is the shape of the upper lid? Is it symmetrical or asymmetrical?
• Where is the eyebrow's point of highest arch over the eye? The lowest?
• Which are the two or three most prominent character lines or folds?
• Where are the darkest shadows? The brightest light areas?
• Turn your head to a three-quarter view. Can you see how the eye shapes change to a more exaggerated tear-drop shape?
• Do you see how the difference between the two eye shapes become more pronounced?
• How much of the one eye is obscured by the bridge of the nose?
• If you wear glasses, can you see how the size and shape of the lenses are different in the three-quarter view, the near lens being a larger and more open shape?
These and countless other questions are often automatically noted and resolved in drawing from observation. What you capture on paper in this process is not merely "a pair of eyes" but a sensitive and accurate drawing of a uniquely individual pair of eyes.
Project 1 - D — Eyes
Make a drawing of your own eyes as they are reflected in a mirror. In doing so, keep your head turned to a three-quarter view (halfway between a front view and profile). Draw as accurately as possible only the areas of the eyes, eyebrows, and the bridge of your nose. Be sure you are always drawing what you see rather than what you know. Use a 2B or an HB pencil and keep the point sharp.
Work primarily in line with some added tone (shading) to indicate the lights and darks you see. Allow yourself at least twenty minutes. Try drawing blind at least three or four times and include at least two restatements.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Keys to Drawing"
by .
Copyright © 1985 Bert Dodson.
Excerpted by permission of F+W Media, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
1 The Drawing Process,
2 The Artist's Handwriting,
3 Proportions: Taking the Measure of Things,
4 The Illusion of Light,
5 The Illusion of Depth,
6 The Illusion of Texture,
7 Pattern and Design,
8 Drawing and Imagination,
Bibliography,
