Drawing n- act of drawing, pull, ultractive effect, thing that draws custom attention etc.
In French the word is designer to draw. The same root word is our word design, mental plan preliminary sketch for a picture, delineation, general idea, plot. Gong-Bi
The Chinese call it Gong-Bi outline.
Drawing is fundamental in the preparation of a painting. It is also a thing of beauty of itself. I maintain that ones skill in drawing is the sign of a good artist or so I was taught! Maybe nowadays those skills are no longer required since the “artist” is now an indescribable person.
I was taught the basics of drawing by my parents. My father taught me perspective, plant drawing and how to represent all kinds of materials including wood, glass, velvet, rock – you name it using only an HB pencil and the way to sharpen it. I would spend hours doing immaculate half Imperial drawings all from the age of 12. One might think that the sweat would’ve put me off. on the contrary I learnt to really love drawing and the experience has
stood me in good stead to this day. Of late I have been concentrating on drawing as a means of exploring new thoughts on my painting. I am attempting to focus on three distinct strands in order to a. achieve discipline of the mind and b. to stimulate the imagination.
The first strand is my indulgence in Urban sketching which I do when I visit Prague. These drawings take me back to the days when I worked in architecture and was often responsible for rendering elevations and producing perspective drawings for planning applications.
Na Hrad from Manesuv Most – Pencil
I have drawn multiple views of this iconic vista. Always interesting. Always a challenge!
Na Hrad – Pencil
Another view of the castle done in what I call my pencil painting style rather impressionistic.
Kannerova Kašna
This Gothic assemblage has numerous figures and a horse and is a test for anyone’s drawing skills. This is only about half of it!
Novy Svet – Pen and Ink
I like to experiment with various styles of drawing. This is a fantasy image with a touch of Van Gogh!
My mother taught me portrait drawing.She was an illustrator in the 50s and 60s mainly in love story magazines. Her drawings were in black and white ink and were the successes of the Manga and fantasy drawings of Marvel comics. Her work was arduous and demanded great skill and concentration.
My second strand is my fascination with Manga. Maybe this is as a result of watching my mother working through the night producing her particular magic.
My Manga work is all about figures and animals – a complete contrast to buildings. I am interested in exploring fantasy and myths. Mainly my fantasy is mixed with Japanese myths. My mind can wander down all kinds of avenues making it up as I go along. The result has found my studying animal and human anatomy both skeletal and muscular. This study has helped me to see horses which has been one of my major drawing weaknesses.
Life drawing – Pencil
It is good practice to do life drawing from the model as often as possible. The teaches proportion and how the body’s muscles work. I study this along with anatomy, a most valuable memory tool.
There are all kinds of specific poses struck by Samurai swordsmen. This is one imagined in the rain.
“Tomoi Gozen”Brush and Ink
A legendary female samurai who struck fear in her enemies. She was the warrior concubine of Minamoto no Yosinaka
Female Samurai on a tiger Brush and ink
A fantasy drawing based on legendary female warriors. This one is to commemorate the Chinese year of the Tiger and is a great excuse to experiment with brush and ink texture techniques. The brush is a very small “weasel hair brush”
My final strand has been drawing preliminary sketches for my abstract paintings. I more often than not prepare “thumbnail” drawings for paintings and have found that a “thumbnail” for an abstract image fascinating in itself. This is drawing distillation and enables me to explore fundamentals of composition and iconography.
It’s almost like researching why one does pictures at all!
Abstract drawing
Stream in the rain – Pencil
This big drawing was for a large watercolour triptych. Drawn on location with abstracts in mind. This is a distillation of nature incorporation, observations, incidents and accidents.
These are thumbnail sketches that explore thoughts about water and reflections. note the reference to mirrors. I see these as ongoing ideas where I’m trying to imagine both what is in front of me and behind!?
I see these as ongoing ideas where I’m trying to imagine both what is in front of me and behind!?
My final strand has been drawing preliminary sketches for my abstract paintings. I more often than not prepare “thumbnail” drawings for paintings and have found that a “thumbnail” for an abstract image fascinating in itself. This is drawing distillation and enables me to explore fundamentals of composition and iconography.
It’s almost like researching why one does pictures at all!