First, one needs to understand that drawing is more than a craft; it is an integral part of the plastic arts. They need to understand what constitutes art and what does not. They need a strong overview and a game plan in order at achieve Mastery. They need to understand the Five Levels of Intent and what each level entails.
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Proportion, Order, and Harmony are the core of the success and vitality of any art form. This is true of all the Fine Arts, i.e., painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and poetry. All things out of proportion are devoid of harmony. Though the subject of proportion is often associated with the human form, it is much more than […]
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Gottfried Bammes was born in 1920 in Freital, Germany. He would have suffered through WWII’s devastation, and it seems likely he would have served in the German Military. Regardless, he finished his education at the Dresden University of Technology (1957–1959), which would have been in his late 30s. Perhaps, he was in Russian prison […]
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Drawing, like all things in life, is not a choice of absolutes; various factions within the art community would have one believe the exact opposite. Their entire premise is that for something to be right, its counterpart must be evil. This stilted fundamentalist philosophy is not only unuseful; it is detrimental to the creative process. […]
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GESTURE – Gestural drawing is the ability to consolidate the observed and imagined visual characteristics of the subject matter and convey the most inFORMation as graphically as possible. Capturing the Gesture or gestalt is about the melding of perception and conception. Gestural drawing is about merging what we know about our subject with our comprehension […]
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We are often asked the difference between Realist and Representational Art. The image to the left is, of course, a photograph. Photographs are what realist art is compared to. This illustration of an apple is an example of what one might find in a vintage seed catalog. It actually describes the apple in terms of […]
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Getting back to ‘R.U.D.I.M.E.N.T.S.,’ we have arrived at ‘N,’ which is a placeholder for ‘Navigation.’ The creative journey is never-ending; the goal is ‘Mastery’ which is elusive, undefinable, and rarely attained. The path is long and the trek takes time, but time flies when you are having a good time. ‘Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.’ […]
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Believable ‘aspective’ views’ play a major role in foreshortening. When the two methods the Old Masters used to solve the problems of extreme foreshortening are revealed, the novice is baffled to no end. The Master draughtsman has two basic methods of dealing with extreme foreshortening. Method Number One: They ‘eliminated‘ it. Method Number Two: They […]
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The late Myron Barnstone may not have invented the word ‘aspective’ but he certainly expanded and cemented its meaning. The word ‘aspective‘ seems to have been coined to describe Ancient Egyptian art. The Ancient Egyptians depicted the most recognizable aspects of things. The Egyptians depicted various parts of their subjects to provide the most recognizable […]
Read MoreThe Society of Figurative Arts uses the word Disegno to refer to both Designing and Drawing much as the Renaissance Italians did. They recognized Drawing as classical design, a position we share. The system of Disegno used by Leonardo and discovered in the writings of Vitruvius 80-70 BC (The first Roman Architect) lead to Leonardo’s […]
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