An Art Primer, Drawing
For the very few who might go to the trouble to read these ravings of the mad Artist in Burlington, I'm going to assume that your knowledge of Art to be limited. I'm assuming this because of the interest in accompanying me to an Art museum.
If my opinions and knowledge clash with any other you may be aware of I'd really appreciate your feedback.
With the invention of the computer as a graphics tool Fine Art as I was taught it is dying. Art supply stores are carrying less and less of the staple materials that one could easily purchase as recently a 10 years ago. Pretty soon we'll be making what we need just like they did 200 years ago. I'm going to relate the subject as I know it, as I understand it, and as I believe it. I recently heard from a friend of mine, another artist, that he visited our alma mater. What he saw being produced was ghastly, I believe the word abortions was used. The use of computer and copy machine art was avante garde when I attended. Now it's the standard and unfortunately without the discipline of manual 'art making' it is chaos.
Visual Art was born in the mind of mankind by that same little machine in your head that sees animals in clouds and faces in bad paneling. The way the theoretical episode happened (according to the way I heard it anyway), from what we are able to glean from the cave paintings in France and Spain certain wall formations reminded our first artist of animals or female body parts (take your pick...one was food the other was sex, the two things that seem to fill male minds) except for certain details. Our Artist picked up a charcoal stick from the fire that had burned out and added the details to his vision. At that moment the concept of written History was invented. If you think about it you will probably agree with me. It got more complicated from that point on...they found colored clays that reminded them of the colors of the natural world around him and mixed with spit added them to his charcoal drawing. We still use these colored dirt products in the form of umber, sienna, ochre etc. These are known as 'Earth Tones', and they are the simplest and cheapest of the colors you can purchase, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
It didn't take long for this activity to take on mystical significance. I won't go into it but leave it at suddenly God had a face and nature could be seemingly controlled.
All Art without exception is born in the mind of the artist. This mental image is recorded and worked out through the implementation of drawing. Drawing is the Mother of all Art. Drawing is the discipline of Art. "I can't draw." If I had a quarter for every time I've heard that after someone sees my work or hears about it I wouldn't have to work next month. My response to this statement is "They did teach you to write your name right? That signature is your unique mark, indisputable in a court of law and all things pertaining to you in contracts, money exchanges, proof of receipt, etc. Drawing is nothing more then the expansion of that mark. It's the ultimate form of hand- eye coordination. In European society in years past, women of breeding were taught to draw; it was sign of culture." I stand by this statement.
Drawing is any mark made on a surface. This is the statement emblazoned on the hearts and minds of every drawing student that comes through the process. It's true, sorta. It isn't quite that simple...but for the sake of argument we'll leave it at that. SOOOOOOOOOO now that we have our understanding of how it all got started and the fundamentals of the process we can begin.
The real trick and "Art" of visual art is the same as music: Composition. How to arrange these marks to make some sorta sense, to stimulate that little mind machine that sees animals in clouds and faces in really bad paneling? That's kinda complicated. I always teach composition using two tools. One is the collected works of Hokusai; Classic Japanese printmaker-the trick is I turn the book upside down. The other is to spread a group of geometric shapes on a surface, and allow the student to arrange them. But for now I must depart. Claire, my female cat is demanding some quality time, she's doing this by licking my hand while I type and sticking those little fishhook claws that god gave her into my arm.
Farewell
If my opinions and knowledge clash with any other you may be aware of I'd really appreciate your feedback.
With the invention of the computer as a graphics tool Fine Art as I was taught it is dying. Art supply stores are carrying less and less of the staple materials that one could easily purchase as recently a 10 years ago. Pretty soon we'll be making what we need just like they did 200 years ago. I'm going to relate the subject as I know it, as I understand it, and as I believe it. I recently heard from a friend of mine, another artist, that he visited our alma mater. What he saw being produced was ghastly, I believe the word abortions was used. The use of computer and copy machine art was avante garde when I attended. Now it's the standard and unfortunately without the discipline of manual 'art making' it is chaos.
Visual Art was born in the mind of mankind by that same little machine in your head that sees animals in clouds and faces in bad paneling. The way the theoretical episode happened (according to the way I heard it anyway), from what we are able to glean from the cave paintings in France and Spain certain wall formations reminded our first artist of animals or female body parts (take your pick...one was food the other was sex, the two things that seem to fill male minds) except for certain details. Our Artist picked up a charcoal stick from the fire that had burned out and added the details to his vision. At that moment the concept of written History was invented. If you think about it you will probably agree with me. It got more complicated from that point on...they found colored clays that reminded them of the colors of the natural world around him and mixed with spit added them to his charcoal drawing. We still use these colored dirt products in the form of umber, sienna, ochre etc. These are known as 'Earth Tones', and they are the simplest and cheapest of the colors you can purchase, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
It didn't take long for this activity to take on mystical significance. I won't go into it but leave it at suddenly God had a face and nature could be seemingly controlled.
All Art without exception is born in the mind of the artist. This mental image is recorded and worked out through the implementation of drawing. Drawing is the Mother of all Art. Drawing is the discipline of Art. "I can't draw." If I had a quarter for every time I've heard that after someone sees my work or hears about it I wouldn't have to work next month. My response to this statement is "They did teach you to write your name right? That signature is your unique mark, indisputable in a court of law and all things pertaining to you in contracts, money exchanges, proof of receipt, etc. Drawing is nothing more then the expansion of that mark. It's the ultimate form of hand- eye coordination. In European society in years past, women of breeding were taught to draw; it was sign of culture." I stand by this statement.
Drawing is any mark made on a surface. This is the statement emblazoned on the hearts and minds of every drawing student that comes through the process. It's true, sorta. It isn't quite that simple...but for the sake of argument we'll leave it at that. SOOOOOOOOOO now that we have our understanding of how it all got started and the fundamentals of the process we can begin.
The real trick and "Art" of visual art is the same as music: Composition. How to arrange these marks to make some sorta sense, to stimulate that little mind machine that sees animals in clouds and faces in really bad paneling? That's kinda complicated. I always teach composition using two tools. One is the collected works of Hokusai; Classic Japanese printmaker-the trick is I turn the book upside down. The other is to spread a group of geometric shapes on a surface, and allow the student to arrange them. But for now I must depart. Claire, my female cat is demanding some quality time, she's doing this by licking my hand while I type and sticking those little fishhook claws that god gave her into my arm.
Farewell
posted by ak at 7:34 PM
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