The Act of Drawing - The Line

Here is the first attempt at photographing the Act of Drawing. I started with the simplest element of drawing, the line. Obviously there is the "point", which is even simpler but no one is interested in seeing a point being drawn. The line is the simple element of drawing that involves motion.

These are really just testing out the apparatus for documentation. It still needs some work (ie better lighting, subject, etc) but it is going somewhere.

Thesis - Lines Represent Time

A quote that I think is quite relevant to the new endeavor of thinking about and recording the act of drawing:

"All drawn lines have a speed that can be deduced: they have a beginning and an end, and therefore represent time, as well as space. Even a tracing of a photograph contains more 'time' than the original photograph (which represents just a fraction of a second) because the hand takes time to do it." - David Hockney

Sketches - Lines

I have been have a conversation with various people about the sketches. What makes sketch, what make a successful one, etc. In this conversation the topic of lines came up. The amount of lines used seem to be a deciding factor in the idea of a sketch. Accomplishing a drawing with minimal lines. Conveying enough information to get the subject across with turning it into a drawing. I went and looked at a few artists sketchbooks as a result. I have four more coming into the library in a few days, but I thought I would start with David Hockney, who was suggested to me as an example of the minimal sketch.



The above sketch is entitled "Celia Sleeping" from 1972. The simplicity of the sketch amazes me. From the expression on the woman's face to the bedding hanging off the bed, Hockney has managed to capture an entire scene with only a few well placed lines.

Below is the next sketch I had completed from my sketching class. I will be posting all my sketches as they are finished, but over the next few days I will be posting all the ones to date.

As you can see, there is a difference in the line content and amount of detail included. I feel like I am starting to get a handle on that aspect. There is still a ways to go yet. I find it difficult to exclude much of the detail that I can see. I normally end up doing portions of a building or the entire building from much farther away. Just so I can omit details in good conscience. I need to learn to pick what is important and only draw those lines.

Observations - The Defining of Space in Drawing

I made an observation yesterday in my daybook, while I was working on the next drawing. There is a definite difference in the creation of space (on paper) between Line drawings and Rendering. The lines of an orthographic drawing define the space, interior and exterior, with a single stroke. The line divides one area of the page from another, just as a wall would do in the built world. It is a straightforward way to create the spaces that the designer is looking for.

With a rendering, however, it is more complicated. You can't create that boundary in the same way. Rendering is the illustration of how light interacts with the different components in a design. (ie. walls, windows, furniture, etc). Instead of giving a bounding line, rendering needs to fill the space with light and shadows to give it definition.