8 Drawing

Learning Objectives Discuss the history of drawing in the Italian Renaissance and how it came to be considered an art in its own right. Distinguish between dry and liquid drawing media and list examples of each. Give some examples of how drawing can be an innovative medium.

Introduction The video for the band a-ha's "Take On Me" was animated via rotoscope by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger. Viewers became entranced by the young woman's being inserted into the world of drawings. Drawing can be both a starting point and a finished artwork in itself.

Video for a-ha's "Take On Me". 1985. Video stills Video for a-ha's "Take On Me". 1985. Video stills. Animation by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger. Directed by Steve Barron. Courtesy of Rhino Entertainment Company © 1985 Warner Music Group. [Fig. 8-1]

Video for a-ha's "Take On Me". 1985. Video stills Video for a-ha's "Take On Me". 1985. Video stills. Animation by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger. Directed by Steve Barron. Courtesy of Rhino Entertainment Company © 1985 Warner Music Group. [Fig. 8-2]

From Preparatory Sketch to Finished Work of Art 1 of 5 Through drawing, artists can illustrate different approaches to compositions. It is useful in its directness as well as its ability to record visual history. Today, drawing may be viewed as an activity accessible to both artists and ordinary people.

From Preparatory Sketch to Finished Work of Art 2 of 5 An early drawing, possibly by the workshop of Maso Finiguerra, shows a youth working on expensive paper which he would have sanded clean after each drawing. Paper was not manufactured in the West until the thirteenth century and was preceded by papyrus in Egypt and parchment in ancient Rome.

Workshop of Maso Finiguerra, Youth Drawing. 1450–75 Workshop of Maso Finiguerra, Youth Drawing. 1450–75. Pen and ink with wash on paper, 7-5/8 × 4-1/2". The British Museum, London. 1895,0915.440 © The Trustees of the British Museum. [Fig. 8-3]

From Preparatory Sketch to Finished Work of Art 3 of 5 Gutenberg's invention of the printing press spurred a need for paper. Because it required large quantities of cloth rags to produce, paper remained a luxury commodity and drawing was often not done on paper. Students learned painting from copying a master's work.

From Preparatory Sketch to Finished Work of Art 4 of 5 In Lives of the Painters, Giorgio Vasari wrote that crowds flocked to see Leonardo's cartoon drawing for Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St. John the Baptist. This account is the earliest recorded example of the public admiring a drawing.

Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St. John the Baptist. 1499–1500. Black chalk and touches of white chalk on brownish paper, mounted on canvas, 4' 7-3/4" × 41-1/4". National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from Art Fund, Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organized by Art Fund, 1962. NG3887. © 2015. Copyright National Gallery, London/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 8-4]

From Preparatory Sketch to Finished Work of Art 5 of 5 Leonardo's Study for a Sleeve shows fluidity and spontaneity of line. The arm is still and smooth in contrast to the swirling drapery. In drawing, Leonardo reveals the imbalance between the unmoving sitter and his own imagination. Such drawings are preserved and collected by connoisseurs as fine art.

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for a Sleeve. ca. 1510–13 Leonardo da Vinci, Study for a Sleeve. ca. 1510–13. Pen, lampblack, and chalk, 3-1/8 × 6-3/4". The Royal Collection. © 2015 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 8-5]

Drawing Materials Drawing materials are often divided into dry media and liquid media.

Dry Media 1 of 11 Dry media includes metalpoint, chalk, charcoal, graphite, and pastel. Coloring agents, or pigments, are sometimes mixed with binders, although binders are not necessary if the pigment can be applied to the work directly.

Dry Media 2 of 11 Metalpoint This style, popular beginning in the late fifteenth century, involved a metal stylus applied to a surface prepared with powdered bones and gumwater. Wherever the stylus was applied, a chemical reaction produced line. A metalpoint line is pale gray and delicate; it cannot be made thicker by increasing pressure.

Dry Media 3 of 11 Metalpoint Leonardo's Study of a Woman's Head or of the Angel of Vergine delle Rocce exhibits shadow rendered with careful hatching. The drawing could not be erased without resurfacing paper, so the loose and expressive lines here are particularly impressive.

Leonardo da Vinci, Study of a Woman's Head or of the Angel of the Vergine delle Rocce. 1473. Silverpoint with white highlights on prepared paper, 7-1/8 × 6-1/4". Biblioteca Reale, Turin, Italy. Alinari/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 8-6]

The Creative Process 1 of 2 Movement and Gesture: Raphael's Alba Madonna Raphael was inspired by the freedom of movement found in Leonardo da Vinci's drawings. In the studies for The Alba Madonna, Raphael worked on both sides of a single piece of paper.

Raphael, Studies for The Alba Madonna (recto). ca. 1511 Raphael, Studies for The Alba Madonna (recto). ca. 1511. Red chalk 6-5/8 × 10-3/4". Musée des Beaux Arts, Lille, France. © RMN-Grand Palais/Hervé Lewandowski. [Fig. 8-7]

Raphael, Studies for The Alba Madonna (verso). ca. 1511 Raphael, Studies for The Alba Madonna (verso). ca. 1511. Red chalk and pen and ink, 16-5/8 × 10-3/4". Private collection. Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 8-8]

The Creative Process 2 of 2 Movement and Gesture: Raphael's Alba Madonna The circular format of the final painting is fully realized in the second study. While not all facial expressions are fully indicated, the emotional atmosphere is apparent in the fluency of the figures' composition.

Raphael, The Alba Madonna. ca. 1510 Raphael, The Alba Madonna. ca. 1510. Oil on panel transferred to canvas, diameter 37-1/4 in., framed 4' 6" × 4' 5-1/2". National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Andrew W. Mellon Collection. Photo © 1999 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art. Photo: José A. Naranjo. [Fig. 8-9]

Dry Media 4 of 11 Chalk and charcoal While the chief concern of metalpoint is delineation, chalk and charcoal are able to give a volumetric sense of their subject. With the invention of a variety of chalks by the sixteenth century, artists could make more gradual transitions from light to dark.

Dry Media 5 of 11 Chalk and charcoal Georgia O'Keeffe's Banana Flower achieves volume and space rendered with charcoal. Charcoal, however, was not widely used in Renaissance works aside from sinopie, or tracing the outlines of compositions drawn on a wall prior to being painted as frescoes.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Banana Flower. 1933 Georgia O'Keeffe, Banana Flower. 1933. Charcoal and black chalk on paper, 21-3/4 × 14-3/4". Museum of Modern Art, New York. Given anonymously (by exchange), 21.1936. © 2015. Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 8-10]

Dry Media 6 of 11 Chalk and charcoal The expressive directness and immediacy of charcoal made it popular for modern artists. Käthe Kollwitz's Self-Portrait, Drawing features the figure's arm realized by angular gesture lines, expressive and raw. This contrasts with the carefully rendered hand and face.

Käthe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Drawing. 1933 Käthe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Drawing. 1933. Charcoal on brown laid Ingres paper (Nagel 1972 1240), 18-3/4 × 25". National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.5217. © 2015 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. [Fig. 8-11]

Dry Media 7 of 11 Graphite Lead pencils became increasingly popular after black chalk became harder to find in the sixteenth century. At the request of Napoleon and due to dwindling availability of imported pencils, the Conté crayon was invented. It partially substituted clay for graphite.

Georges Seurat, The Artist's Mother. 1882–83 Georges Seurat, The Artist's Mother. 1882–83. Conté crayon on Michallet paper, 12-5⁄16 × 9-7⁄16". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1951; acquired from the Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection, 55.21.1. © 2015. Digital image Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 8-12]

Dry Media 8 of 11 Graphite Georges Seurat's Conté crayon study exhibits the wide range of tonal effects afforded by the new medium. Vija Celmins's Untitled (Ocean) further demonstrates the capabilities of graphite drawing to be photorealistic. The arbitrary frame of a camera lens suggests a continuance of space.

Vija Celmins, Untitled (Ocean). 1970 Vija Celmins, Untitled (Ocean). 1970. Graphite on acrylic ground on paper, 14-1/8 × 18-7/8". Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mrs. Florene M. Schoenborn Fund, 585.1970. © 2015. Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Vija Celmins. [Fig. 8-13]

Dry Media 9 of 11 Pastel Pastel is a chalk medium with colored pigment and a nongreasy binder; the more binder, the harder the stick and less intense the color. Edgar Degas was attracted to its direct, unfinished quality for the portrayal of a series of women at their bath. He invented a new method of building up pigments in layers with fixative.

Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself. ca. 1889–90 Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself. ca. 1889–90. Pastel on paper, 26-5/8 × 22-3/4". The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. ©The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 8-14]

Dry Media 10 of 11 Pastel Mary Cassatt became a student of Degas and used pastel even more boldly than her mentor. Young Mother, Daughter, and Son features gestures of line that exceed their boundaries and seemingly arbitrary blue strokes throughout. Her freedom of line was praised as a symbol of women's strength.

Mary Cassatt, Young Mother, Daughter, and Son. 1913 Mary Cassatt, Young Mother, Daughter, and Son. 1913. Pastel on paper, 43-1/4 × 33-1/4". Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Marion Stratten Gould Fund. mag.rochester.edu/. [Fig. 8-15]

Dry Media 11 of 11 Oilstick Oil made with wax and molded into stick form allowed the painter to draw with density without the interference of a brush. Sandy Brooke's Fate and Luck: Eclipse exhibits smeared and transparent effects, lending to the theme of ambiguity of omens across cultures.

Sandy Brooke, Fate and Luck: Eclipse. 2011. Oilstick on linen, 30 × 24". Courtesy of the artist. © 2011 Sandy Brooke. Photo: Gary Alvis. [Fig. 8-16]

Liquid Media 1 of 5 Pigments are suspended in liquid binders that flow more easily than dry media. They can also be applied with a brush.

Liquid Media 2 of 5 Pen and ink Renaissance works featured iron-gall ink, which browns with age despite being black upon application. Elisabetta Sirani utilized a quill pen to create her lines, which vary in width. She produced pieces with such speed that she was forced to work in public to ensure that her work was her own.

Elisabetta Sirani, The Holy Family with a Kneeling Monastic Saint. ca Elisabetta Sirani, The Holy Family with a Kneeling Monastic Saint. ca. 1660. Pen and brown ink, black chalk, on paper, 10-3/8 × 7-3/8". Private collection. Photo © Christie's Images/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 8-17]

Liquid Media 3 of 5 Pen and ink Jean Dubuffet's Corps de Dame (meaning both a group of women and women's bodies) shows great variation in line, from hairline to strokes about a half-inch thick. It could be interpreted as an attack on the formal perfection of academic figure drawing.

Jean Dubuffet, Corps de Dame. June–December 1950 Jean Dubuffet, Corps de Dame. June–December 1950. Pen, reed pen, and ink, 10-5/8 × 8-3/8". Museum of Modern Art, New York. Jean and Lester Avnet Collection, 54.1978. © 2015 Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. [Fig. 8-18]

Liquid Media 4 of 5 Wash and brush Ink is diluted with water and applied by brush in broad, flat areas. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's Adoration of the Magi is layered with graphite sketch, pen and ink, and a brown wash. These layers help define volume and form to create dynamics.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Adoration of the Magi. 1740s Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Adoration of the Magi. 1740s. Pen and brown wash over graphite sketch, 11-3⁄5 × 8-1⁄5". Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. Mortimer C. Leventritt Fund, 1950.392. [Fig. 8-19]

Liquid Media 5 of 5 Wash and brush Drawing with a brush was a popular tradition in the East, possibly due to its dual use as a writing instrument. Chinese calligraphy carries a range of line width with every stroke. Liang Kai's representation of Tang poet Li Bo juxtaposes strokes of diluted ink with detailed brushwork, as seen in the figure's face.

Liang Kai, The Poet Li Bo Walking and Chanting a Poem Liang Kai, The Poet Li Bo Walking and Chanting a Poem. Southern Song dynasty, ca. 1200. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 31-3/4 × 11-7/8". Tokyo National Museum, Japan. Image: TNM Image Archives. [Fig. 8-20]

Innovative Drawing Media 1 of 6 Henri Matisse considered working with scissors to be a kind of drawing. When he was confined to a wheelchair, he cut large swathes of color freehand and arranged them into his desired compositions. In Venus, the goddess's form is featured in the negative space of the composition.

Henri Matisse, Venus. 1952. Paper collage on canvas, 39-7⁄8 × 30-1⁄8" Henri Matisse, Venus. 1952. Paper collage on canvas, 39-7⁄8 × 30-1⁄8". National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. © 2015 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 8-21]

Innovative Drawing Media 2 of 6 Whispers from the Walls is an installation recreating a 1920s North Texas house. The African-American family that lived there is portrayed life size in charcoal, based on actual photographs. The medium was inspired by the artist's 1993 visit to an Italian villa that had been owned by a slave trader.

Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls. 1999 Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls. 1999. Mixed-media installation, varying dimensions. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York. [Fig. 8-22]

Innovative Drawing Media 3 of 6 South African artist William Kentridge employs drawings in his animated films. These films are made of hundreds of photographs of charcoal drawings that have been altered successively through erasure, additions, and redrawings. The work is inspired by the concept of memory, particularly of apartheid in South Africa as well the working force.

Innovative Drawing Media 4 of 6 South African artist William Kentridge employs drawings in his animated films. History of the Main Complaint explores the meaning of white businessman Soho Eckstein's life; the theme is recognition of both his own and white South Africans' responsibility to admit their guilt.

William Kentridge, History of the Main Complaint. 1996. Stills William Kentridge, History of the Main Complaint. 1996. Stills. Film, 35 mm, shown as video, projection, black and white, and sound (mono), 5 min. 50 sec. Courtesy of Marion Goodman Gallery, New York. Courtesy of Marion Goodman Gallery, New York. [Fig. 8-23a]

William Kentridge, History of the Main Complaint. 1996. Stills William Kentridge, History of the Main Complaint. 1996. Stills. Film, 35 mm, shown as video, projection, black and white, and sound (mono), 5 min. 50 sec. Courtesy of Marion Goodman Gallery, New York. Courtesy of Marion Goodman Gallery, New York. [Fig. 8-23b]

William Kentridge, History of the Main Complaint. 1996. Stills William Kentridge, History of the Main Complaint. 1996. Stills. Film, 35 mm, shown as video, projection, black and white, and sound (mono), 5 min. 50 sec. Courtesy of Marion Goodman Gallery, New York. Courtesy of Marion Goodman Gallery, New York. [Fig. 8-23c]

Innovative Drawing Media 5 of 6 In the world of popular culture, comic books prize the medium of drawing. Marjane Satrapi was inspired to create her graphic novel, Persepolis, particularly by Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Satrapi was ten years old when fundamentalists under Ayatollah Khomeini took over Iran.

Innovative Drawing Media 6 of 6 The featured page from the "Kim Wilde" chapter of Persepolis shows the heroine defiantly wearing clothing from Western culture, an act encouraged by her parents. The black and white illustrations signify the lack of moral middle ground in revolutionary Iran.

Marjane Satrapi, page from the "Kim Wilde" chapter of the graphic novel Persepolis. 2001. Ink on paper, 16-9/16 × 11-11/16". Courtesy of the artist. © Marjane Satrapi. [Fig. 8-24]

The Critical Process Thinking about Drawing Frank Auerbach's Head of Catherine Lampert VI was created through a series of drawings that were wiped out over a period of years. An eraser established light planes across the figure's face. Auerbach's studies were often an effort to capture the subject's energy for later creations.

Frank Auerbach, Head of Catherine Lampert VI. 1979–80 Frank Auerbach, Head of Catherine Lampert VI. 1979–80. Charcoal and chalk on canvas, 30-3/8 × 23". Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 436.1981. © 2015. Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © Frank Auerbach. [Fig. 8-25]

Thinking Back Discuss the history of drawing in the Italian Renaissance and how it came to be considered an art in its own right. Distinguish between dry and liquid drawing media and list examples of each. Give some examples of how drawing can be an innovative medium.