Give it some passion!
Tuesday August 14, 2007
Today at my cello lesson, we worked on getting a bit of passion into my playing. As a beginner, I've been concentrating on just playing the right notes, in tune, and all the various elements like hand position and bowing that add up to make a good sound. I discovered that I was barely even using dynamics (loud and soft), let alone putting any emotion into the music.
When you are striving for realism in your drawing, the same thing can happen. You get so focussed on accuracy of line and tone that the drawing becomes clinical. Sometimes lack of skill in art is interpreted as emotion - distortion and frustration being read as expression. But this can become as monotonous as a constantly raucous piece of music. You need a palette of tonal - or in drawing, linear - 'colors' that you can utilize, not by default, but by choice.
- Some ways to add dynamism to your drawing:
- Try some pure line drawing, experimenting with lineweight - hard and soft, heavy and light.
- Trust yourself. Don't re-work your surface, but make a mark and let it be.
- Show your structure. Make your construction and perspective lines part of the composition.
- Destroy perfection. Some very accomplished artists go back to a very perfect piece and break up the surface, adding tone, erasing, even damaging the surface. I knew a screen printer who added screen-printed masking tape and coffee stains to create the illusion of informality in his work.
- Think about your composition. Use close cropping and interesting angles to create drama.
- Leave it incomplete. Try leaving areas unfinished, and allowing informal marks to create the feeling of a work in progress - like a live performance compared to a studio recording.
Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments!
Comments
I have found that when I feel my self- portraits are too tight and not free, which in my opinion is the essence of a good portrait, I take a rag or some kind of scraping tool for the mood, and scrape it up part of the face, making all kinds of emotive responce. This is a technique that I will never perfect, as I believe if you do, you will be way to tight and shuld try a different technique for the job. Let it fly…
,
A really great article, Thanks Helen South! Whenever I have a bunch of time, I observe life around me and preserve it in mind. Whenever I draw…. I completely forget the life and just focus on preserved life and colors.
Nice idea, Sheri. modifying the surface can be very effective.
Sid, funny you should say that - I was just reading about illustrator J.P Targete, and how he doesn’t like to use references but commits it to memory, to draw upon whenever he needs. Freeing yourself from the subject can be very useful.
I was also thinking that most of my suggestions involve adding drama or energetic marks. There are times when you want your expression to be subtle and lyrical, and in this case, you’d want to have maximum control over your tonal range, perhaps even using a more subtle range of values than you can actually see.
A very delicate and flowing line is difficult to achieve - you have to really think ahead and know where it is going.
Helen
Being a realistic artist, I found your article very innovative. Thanks