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Part II: Drawing

Drawing is the probity of art.
-Ingrés

Young Man in a Leather Jacket By Richard Whitney

Method

Leonardo da Vinci discovered that the outside shape or contour and the edge of the shadow are the most essential elements in expressing form.

1. Quickly memorize the silhouettes of the masses to help you capture essential proportions and gesture.
2. Draw the contour of the light and dark masses and then correct errors of proportion or shape. Take pains to make the outside shape interesting and expressive.
3. Draw the edge of the shadow and be sure that its shape correctly expresses the structure.
4. Shade the shadows flat. Keep the areas of light and shadow simple and distinct.
5. Add essential detail.
6. Model the form to complete the drawing. Simplify and refine detail and model edges as sharp or soft as they appear in the visual impression.

Concepts

Get the construction of the masses correct before refining them or adding detail. To establish placements look at the relationship between three points at one glance.

Draw the shapes as accurately as you can from the start instead of blocking them in a geometric manner. Hans Holbein drew in silverpoint for many years. This forced him to get the shapes as accurately as he could from the beginning and to develop great sensitivity to form with each touch he made. Degas advised, "Study nature and draw like Holbein."

Sweep your eye along the outside shape. Try to see it as a whole and draw its essential shape. Don't look at each part separately or you will exaggerate the irregularities of the form.

Draw what you see not what you think you see. Don't outline each object but study how objects fit together. Draw the negative space (the shape of the background around objects) to establish their true relationship.

The contour lines of the human body are composed of overlapping convex curves and straight lines. Concave curves usually only occur as a result of deformity or disease. Opposite contours of the body often vary in emphasis. Where there is a convex form on one side of a limb there will usually be a flat form on the other side. The highest swelling of the muscles are rarely opposite each other. This serpentine rhythm of contours makes the forms come alive. This rhythm can also be achieved by alternating sharp and soft edges and light and dark accents along the silhouettes.

Chinon By Richard Whitney

A beautiful curve can be enhanced by putting a straight line beside it for contrast. Without the steadying influence of straight lines, curves get out of hand and lose their power. Avoid excessive curvature. The finest curves are full of restraint — they are more flat than round.⁹

Search for variety — the unexpected. For instance, the eyes and mouth rarely slant the same way. The eyes often slope on one side while the mouth runs up towards the lower eye. This converging of features on one side restores the balance of the face.¹⁰

When drawing clothing or drapery be sure the folds express the form of the body underneath.

When the form is complex, you may need to draw the shape of each plane and keep its edges well defined until you understand its structure.

Then simplify detail and model edges. Study how the small planes merge into larger and simpler planes in the visual impression. Sargent used to say that when he had a difficult object to paint, he would "photograph" it with small brushes until he understood its structure, then he would use go over it with bigger brushes and simplify the detail.

Helpful Hints

To make the picture life-size, place the canvas beside the subject and stand back until you can compare them in one glance. Paint from this viewing point (which should be a distance from the subject of at least three times the largest dimension of the canvas.) If you want the picture smaller than life-size, move the canvas closer to the viewing point, to make it larger, place it further back from the subject. Work sight-size when possible as it makes for easy comparison.

From the viewing point, hold a ruler at arms length, close one eye, and line up the top and bottom of the painting with the top and bottom of the subject.

Often view your painting from a distance to capture the essential shapes, values and colors of the subject.

Frequently compare the subject with your picture in a mirror. Leonardo da Vinci taught, "The mirror is our teacher." The mirror gives you a fresh eye and helps you correct subtle errors of drawing and design.

Choose a part of the subject as a unit of measure and compare it with other sections to study their relative dimensions and proportions.

Hold a ruler horizontally at arms length and close one eye and compare the subject and canvas simultaneously to study horizontal relationships.

Keep the picture level. Find where the horizon line would be on your canvas to check the perspective.

Use a plumb line to determine vertical relationships. Many artists have a bias to the right or left of vertical.

Use a mahl stick to steady the hand for greater precision.

Keep a sketchpad handy and do close-up studies of difficult passages.

Alternate between sketches and finished pictures. Do quick studies to get ideas and designs and to learn how to grasp essentials with speed. Then spend as much time as you can on what you believe could your best drawing or painting and push it to the limit of your ability. Strive for accuracy, sensitivity and artistic perfection. You will learn more trying to finish one picture than starting a hundred sketches.

Train the visual memory.

Learn anatomy in order to draw the body with more sensitivity.

Copy Old Master drawings to discover how they expressed form.

Footnotes

9. Ibid., p. 162.

10. Solomon J. Solomon, The Practice of Oil Painting (London: Geeley and Co. Ltd., 1911), p. 53.

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