We’re doing a fun series of sketches in “Abstracting the Image” on Thursdays. Each week we’re taking a masterwork and exploring it with approaches inspired by contemporary abstract painters. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to lean on, and learn from the composition of the masterwork, while exploring a variety of ways to wonder within it, and make new marks. This is a way to get us off of the impulse to copy a “perfect” image (whether it’s a masterwork or our own photograph), while still benefiting from the structure. It gives us a place to start, and a direction to start walking.
Done properly, this exercise would require 6′ canvases and many months, but as an experiment we’re shortening that down to quick two minute sketches using whatever art supplies we have on hand. Below are a few of my own sketches, done in class. I gave myself an additional challenge of using Procreate, a digital painting app on my iPad. It’s not perfect – for instance the drawing below would have best been done with carbon paper. Digitally, I could have hunted down some horizontal flip option, but within all my “it could be better if…” sorts of thoughts, there is something effectively freeing and highly productive about a 2 minute time limit.
Pontormo, after Dorothea Rockburne’s “Drawing Which Makes Itself” in which a piece of carbon paper was used to create a positive and negative image (below)
As I sketched the composition, I discovered qualities of the lines within it, and how they feed the composition. For instance, each line leads somewhere. It’s a lyrical piece. Lines are not just there to express the boundaries of objects, these lines function as pathways, taking us through the composition.
In the style of Bryce Marden
After a few sketches, I also noticed how Jesus and Mary formed a continuation of a shape together, a broad diagonal oval with tension as it’s pulled apart.
In the style of Margaret Neill
These sketches certainly aren’t perfect. I’d do each again in a slightly different way, but they were enjoyable little notes and explorations of things I found in the moment. The composition still had more to give and I’d love to revisit. Take a look and see what you see.
In the style of Richard Tuttle
In the style of Mondrian (early)
In the style of Matisse
In the style of Margaret Neill
In the style of Kandinsky
In the style of Ellsworth Kelly
In the style of Grego
In the style of Donald Judd
In the style of Cy Twombly
In the style of Bryce Marden
In the style of Cy Twombly
In the style of Mondrian (Late)
Ugh. It’s impossible to do a Mondrian quickly! Clearly that man thought about every quarter inch and weighted color for ages. I can’t even pretend to fake it in two minutes.
After these “notes,” students are invited to find something they found interesting and explore it more. Perhaps they enjoyed drawing in a certain style, or wanted to apply a similar pattern approach to one of their own images. Once again, these are just notes – thoughts for further exploration. These sketches were mine, and there were excellent contributions from other people in the class. I’ll share some tomorrow.
If this looks interesting, you are welcome to jump into the next section of Abstracting the Image, starting next week. Click here to learn more.
[image_with_animation image_url=”11536″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Sacred Shapes – Accordion Book Yesterday I posted Ralph Kiggell’s Temple Dogs series of woodblock prints, and quoted excerpts from his blog that described his process. Today I’m sharing his Sacred Shapes series of 12 woodblocks. They also have a simple concept, repeated in iterations, in which the subject is …
Nearly 100 works show how an American post-war painter used a French master’s work as inspiration. BMA Exhibit Curated by Katy Rothkopf. Post edited from original post by Gabriella Souza on Baltimore Arts & Culture. Posted on October 20, 2016 They were painters separated by decades, continents, and artistic movements, but their love of color and passion for painting …
French: La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Le Grand Verre) Artist Marcel Duchamp Year 1915–23 Type Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass panels Dimensions 277.5 cm × 175.9 cm (109.25 in × 69.25 in) Location Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (La mariée mise à nu par ses …
Five Things You Might Not Know About Egon Schiele Egon Schiele, Standing Nude with Stockings, 1914 In his twenty-eight years on earth, Egon Schiele produced some of the most radical depictions of the human figure in modern times. Through his highly expressive, utterly uncompromising portraiture, he shoved away the parameters of self-expression, procreation, sexuality, eroticism and mortality …
Pontormo, in the style of ___
We’re doing a fun series of sketches in “Abstracting the Image” on Thursdays. Each week we’re taking a masterwork and exploring it with approaches inspired by contemporary abstract painters. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to lean on, and learn from the composition of the masterwork, while exploring a variety of ways to wonder within it, and make new marks. This is a way to get us off of the impulse to copy a “perfect” image (whether it’s a masterwork or our own photograph), while still benefiting from the structure. It gives us a place to start, and a direction to start walking.
Done properly, this exercise would require 6′ canvases and many months, but as an experiment we’re shortening that down to quick two minute sketches using whatever art supplies we have on hand. Below are a few of my own sketches, done in class. I gave myself an additional challenge of using Procreate, a digital painting app on my iPad. It’s not perfect – for instance the drawing below would have best been done with carbon paper. Digitally, I could have hunted down some horizontal flip option, but within all my “it could be better if…” sorts of thoughts, there is something effectively freeing and highly productive about a 2 minute time limit.
As I sketched the composition, I discovered qualities of the lines within it, and how they feed the composition. For instance, each line leads somewhere. It’s a lyrical piece. Lines are not just there to express the boundaries of objects, these lines function as pathways, taking us through the composition.
After a few sketches, I also noticed how Jesus and Mary formed a continuation of a shape together, a broad diagonal oval with tension as it’s pulled apart.
These sketches certainly aren’t perfect. I’d do each again in a slightly different way, but they were enjoyable little notes and explorations of things I found in the moment. The composition still had more to give and I’d love to revisit. Take a look and see what you see.
Ugh. It’s impossible to do a Mondrian quickly! Clearly that man thought about every quarter inch and weighted color for ages. I can’t even pretend to fake it in two minutes.
After these “notes,” students are invited to find something they found interesting and explore it more. Perhaps they enjoyed drawing in a certain style, or wanted to apply a similar pattern approach to one of their own images. Once again, these are just notes – thoughts for further exploration. These sketches were mine, and there were excellent contributions from other people in the class. I’ll share some tomorrow.
If this looks interesting, you are welcome to jump into the next section of Abstracting the Image, starting next week. Click here to learn more.
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[image_with_animation image_url=”11536″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Sacred Shapes – Accordion Book Yesterday I posted Ralph Kiggell’s Temple Dogs series of woodblock prints, and quoted excerpts from his blog that described his process. Today I’m sharing his Sacred Shapes series of 12 woodblocks. They also have a simple concept, repeated in iterations, in which the subject is …
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Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even
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