We're getting positive and exhilarating feedback from our newly launched Academy. Currently, we have eleven courses there, but will soon be adding others.
We are pleased to this addition to our learning options.
I want to dispel a myth about old masters' drawing practices. We see images of gizmos from a few among whom scientific and mathmatical curiosity was as strong as their artistic impulses. Centuries prior to today's technology, they were curious about how the eye sees perspective, especially foreshortening. That curiosity led to invented mechanical means for exploring those, not for the artist to depend upon.
ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR OF THESE
Most popular among these devices is the grid (illustrations above) invented by 15th century German artist Albrecht Dürer. Dürer invented this to prove the objective validity of
perspective by purely mechanical means. The myth I want to dispel is that master artists depending upon these for the accuracy in their works. They did not depend upon devices like these, even though many today will mislead you to believe they did. Their drawing skills were sound and honed with
training and practice.
Rembrandt never did that, nor did Leonardo nor Michelangelo nor Delecroix nor more modern masters like John Singer Sargent or Richard Schmid, Norman Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth or Claude Monet. You can delve into the working process
of many of our historical masters, and you will find that a significant portion of their artistic voices came from how they used drawing to explore and discover things about their subjects. In addition, how they composed their images was a part of that artistic voice and never included tracing from a photo or copying through some gizmo that projected the image onto their painting surfaces, or even the grid.
Rampant on the internet and occasionally on TV are projection devices designed for directly tracing images. These even pop up as ads on our Quick Tips, something that infuriates me, but over which I have no control. Most of these ads tell you that our historical masters traced projections onto their surfaces. Don't believe it.
TRY THIS:
Watch this brief interview with Andrew Wyeth done a few years before his death.
Enjoy a weekend of discovery!
During my Language of Painting series, I explained the role of our visual elements. If you'd like to review those roles to better understand the behavior of elements, here are the links to each of those
discussions: Color --Value -- Shape -- Texture -- Size -- Line and Direction
You can access the archive of all my newsletters (as well as the Quick Tips and other stuff) at any time by going HERE.
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