5/17/2023 0 Comments Line drawing![]() And yet when it is successful it is striking. There is no fudge factor of tonal modelling. It is a risky business to think that an artist can make something complete out of just line and background. As I was thinking about why I like them so much I happened upon the last comment by John on them being ‘crap.’ It reminds me that they are not appreciated by all.įor me the beauty is partly due to their clarity (and I have to confess that today this is the first time I’ve ever posted anything at this site and both of my posts talk about clarity). Another thing is a personal taste for thicker arms and legs.Ĭouldn’t agree more about the force and beauty of line drawings, especially those of artists like Matisse, Picasso and the vase painters. ![]() Of course this is a technical consideration. “Indeed, the Coleoni statue is the most striking example of this principle, for if one has occasion to examine closely a reproduction, one is surprised at the heaviness of the legs and tempted to see in them a gross exaggeration, but if afterwards one chances to see this masterpiece in Venice, placed on its high pedestal and completely standing out against the sky, the proportions become admirable in their strength and their elegance-in thickening the legs the sculptor has avoided the appearance of thinness.” “For an equestrian statue placed in these conditions, and a quarter larger than nature, I have made the leg, at the part where the cannon-bone is, one and a half inches larger in circumference in proportion to what it is in nature, and the statue once in place, I have only regretted not having made it another half inch bigger.” The first was cut from the first paragraph and the second, from the second. ![]() Robert: Here are the two paragraphs I left out of my first excerpt of the Lanteri on thickening the limbs of figures. Here are two portraits–the first of Stravinsky by Picasso the second, called Woman in Russian Blouse II, by Matisse. In more recent times men like Picasso and Matisse excelled at this type of drawing too. Here is Dürer’s version of the man in a circle:Īnd here are other experiments by Albrecht Dürer based on Leonardo drawings : Artists like Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer experimented with these anatomy lines and produced beautiful figures. Theseus slays the Minotaur, while Athena looks on–a Greek platter, about 425 BCĭrawing with the absolute minimum of lines and yet showing the whole volume of a figure has been a challenge to artists ever since. And when a new method of vase painting allowed them to paint in rather than scratch in their lines, they carried this kind of representation farther still and produced some of the most beautiful figure drawings in art. The vase-artists became experts at showing volume with their lines. ![]() The folds of drapery that they drew also seemed to show them three-dimensionally. ![]() Somehow that worked and gave the figures depth. They drew a line to represent prominences, like bones, but also shadows. In time they began to indicate features of anatomy inside the black silhouettes. The lines decorated the figures and also helped define them. They painted a black area on a red vase and then scratched lines in it with a stylus. They had started by using lines to decorate the figures on their beautiful vases. That shading was invented in Greek times and was a great breakthrough in drawing and painting.īut soon after its discovery, vase painters were learning to give the impression of volume without shading. ![]()
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