5.4.5

DRAWING SKILLS

Part 5

Option 4

Exercise 5 Tonal study

Figure 1 (5.4.5.1) Charcoal on A3 cartridge

5.4.4

DRAWING SKILLS

Part 5

Option 4

Exercise 4 using colour

Figure 1 (5.4.4.1) Charcoal chalk and ink on A2 cartridge

Figure 2 (5.4.4.2) Conte crayon on A2 sugar paper

Figure 3 (5.4.4.3) Conte crayon on A2 sugar paper

5.4.2

DRAWING SKILLS

Part 5

Option 4

Exercise 2 Line Drawing of the whole figure

When I am doing timed figure drawings I find it fairly easy to produce line drawings but when I have lots of time I inevitably end up with a mass drawing but some of my mass drawings do retain a very linear aspect.

Figure1 (5.4.2.1) this is essentially a linear drawing with a dark tone added to bring the figure forward Charcoal on A2 sugar paper

Figure2 (5.4.2.2) Another essentially linear drawing graphite on A2 cartridge paper

Figure 3 (5.4.2.3) At last a purely linear drawing. It took great concentration to stop myself from adding tone. Pen and ink on A2 sugar paper

5.4.3.2

DRAWING SKILLS

Part 5

Option 4

Exercise 3 Research point

Degas

Degas’s drawings are more difficult to analyse than those of Ingres because Degas began his career as a classical artist and ended his career as very much a romantic artist.

Degas was trained by a pupil of Ingres and during his training met Ingres who advised Degas to “Draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and you will become a good artist”

Figure 1 (5.4.3.2.1) life but is it Ingres or Degas? Degas; Portrait of an elderly lady sewing

 

Degas’ early drawings are firmly rooted in the classic tradition, indeed his early  works show a sureness of his touch that one would expect in a draughtsman so closely trained in the techniques of Ingres.

Figure 2 (5.4.3.2.2) Degas; Head of a Roman girl 1956

Figure 3 (5.4.3.2.3) Degas; Thea Degas 1856

 

Figure 4 (5.4.3.2.4) Degas; Study for a woman with Chrysanthemums 1865

 

 

 

Figure 5 (5.4.3.2.5) Degas; Nude woman lying on her back 1865

The early 1870’s and the impressionists’ rebellion against the salon sees a dramatic change in Degas’ drawing style. There seems to be several possible reasons for this.

Figure 6 (5.4.3.2.6) Degas; Woman with a bared torso 1868 Essence and black ink heightened with body colour on ochre coloured paper prepared with oil a whole world away from a pencil drawings of only a few years before

Firstly Degas was experimenting with different media and in drawing in pastel, essence and watercolour; he was blurring the boundary of the classical distinction between drawing and painting. This was of course the common impressionist theme, though most of the impressionists were more concerned with painting “a la pleine air”, eliminating drawing altogether from their work, leaving Degas’ alone, the classically trained draughtsman, to experiment with the structure of drawing and line. Degas’ experiments with materials all seemed to be in the cause of speeding up the drawing process to enable him to better capture movement.

Secondly Degas was abandoning the classical poses and working with real people from real life and capturing movement, probably influenced by Edward Muybridge’s and other’s experiments with early photography. Whilst earlier art has the appearance of the figures being about to move, Degas’ figures are captured in the very act of moving. The multiple contour lines of the ballerinas, washerwomen jockeys and bathing nudes is now accepted comic book shorthand for movement in a figure but when it first appeared in Degas’ drawings it must have been a revelation in the art world.

Figure 7 (5.4.3.2.7) Degas; Degas Fallen jockey 1866 the multiple contours cause the prone jockey to almost quiver

 

Thirdly it is around this time that Degas began to have problems with his vision. It is generally accepted that The Dance Class 1872 was completed at a time when Degas’ eye problems were causing him little problems but thereafter his vision deteriorated alarmingly until in 1903 he gave up drawing and painting altogether. The fine lines of his earlier works were gradually replaced with thick black strokes of his beloved ballerinas and the wide pastel hatchings. The loss of sight would accentuate the main forms at the expense of detail in his drawings.

Figure 8 (5.4.3.2.8) Degas; Dancer adjusting her shoulder strap 1899 Note the wide spacing of the pastel hatching and compare the colouring and the mark making with figure 7 when Degas’ eyesight was fat keener

Finally Degas’ classical compositional skills would have been heavily influenced by the influx of Japanese prints into Europe at this time resulting in his cropped and twisted figures owing more to pattern than classical tradition.

Figure 9 (5.4.3.2.9) Degas; Three dancers in yellow skirts 1891 Degas is turning Japanese with his cropped figure, decorative arrangement and shallow picture space

 

Whichever of the four reasons you prefer and all seem to play a greater or lesser part they combined to allow Degas to change the face of drawing for all time.

Figure 10 (5.4.3.2.10) Degas; Dancers at the barre late 1890’s This picture done at the end of degas’ career shows in the leg and head of the foremost dancer that the picture is all and more important than Degas’ early classical training. The leg and head could quite easily be grafted on to Ingres Odalisque.