Creating Emphasis – Edges and Lines
There are several ways to create emphasis or direct the eye to a focal point in a painting. The variety of edges in your painting is one of these methods. Soft edges allow the eye to move on to another area whereas sharp edges automatically attract the eye and this is where you want your focal point. Another way of describing this method is ‘lost and found edges’.
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We began this workshop by looking at the work of Anders Leonard Zorn (1860-1920), a Swedish artist whose use of light reminded me of the work of Rembrandt and Vermeer, as well as Whistler and Sargent. He used light to great effect to reveal the form of the body and face, it created drama in his works, and a sense of theatre that, if yo took away the lighting, would leave a rather flat and less interesting painting.
You can find examples of Zorn’s work in the following web site: http://www.anderszorn.org.
One of the advantages and pleasures of being in a classroom situation is having the opportunity to do a collaborative work with other students. Often you don’t know how it will all turn out until you put up the finished piece and have a chance to stand back and look at it.
For this session, our tutor had set up a large sheet of brown craft card on the floor, and as we completed poses of our model, he selected a variety of them, to make up a narrative of the lesson.
For those that may have read the classics, like The Illiad, The Odyssey or The Aeneid, the poses and story that we ended up telling on paper, looked to me, very much like an epic tale just like one of these.
(NOTE: Drawings of nude male figure follow in this article)
As we advance through this terms of Life Drawing, additional materials are being added to improve overall drawing skill. During this session we began with short 2-minute sketches with inks on white paper. This gets the eye and hand co-ordination working ready for the longer poses.
Short poses for many, are stressful, as too much detail is sought, rather than capturing the essential pose of the model. Quick poses are an opportunity to look at where the weight bearing is happening, the movement, the general feeling of the pose and not all the little details. I encourage students in drawing classes to relax and enjoy this process more as it is an important part of your progress towards your more involved drawings later in a session.
These sort simple drawings also prepare you for adding and changing materials as you work your way through learning about your model, how their body differs from others, and how you can interpret what you are seeing to paper.
(NOTE: Drawings of nude male figure follows in this article)
Janice Mills 