Content

"Critique" by JRJ

Most sketchbooks are used as a visual record. Ideas, places, visual concepts all begin here. Most important paintings are born here. You can keep the value relationship, interesting details and personal notes or planning ideas about a painting there. Paintings are authenticated this way, "Does it appear in the sketch books or preliminary drawings?"

Seeing

"Venus of Willendorf "

The last purpose we will consider for drawing is as a preliminary for sculpture. Preliminary studies for sculpture have been around almost as long as sculpture. The Venus of Willendorf [26,000 to 22,000 BC] was probably done without a preliminary sketch.

Sculpture provides other challenges, accurate three dimensional proportion, surface texture, making the transfer from 2-D to 3-D. Sculpture requires a good preliminary drawing or set of drawings.

For the sculptor sketchbooks are used as a visual record of the model. It takes the place of keeping the model present during the entire sculpture process. They are more closely linked to the sculpture process than even painting preliminaries might be. The sculpture doesn't proceed without them. 

Spatial Drawing

Drawing can replicate an illusion of depth, provide additional information for another purpose (painting, sculpture, installation and many others) or provide an end in itself.

1 - 40 minute drawing -- Composition gesture, value / mass building, then detail - a fully developed drawing. Be conscious of the sequence form, and make the drawing interesting. Start with the same setup - cloth covered box, when we have all brought it up to a near finished level we introduce a new element and all drawings must accomodate the change. [Designed to make us flexible enough to make changes when we need them, when the drawing or composition warrants change.]

Footnotes: