How did it happen that all of our drawings and paintings are in rectangles?
In my online figure drawing class last Sunday, I showed drawings by Matisse, Modigliani, and the very Matisse-like Pierre Boncompain. I talked about positioning the figure within the rectangle, thinking about how the shape of the figure and the shape of the spaces around the figure interact with the shape of the compositional rectangle.
Matisse
Modigliani
Color pencil figure drawing by Pierre Boncompain
Looking at the drawings by Pierre Boncompain led me to his ceramics, and I remembered something my painting teacher Ed Bereal asked: What if the shape you’re painting on isn’t a rectangle, and what if the surface isn’t flat?
In Fran O’Neill’s recent online drawing class, she had us draw quick thumbnail sketches in a variety of rectangular, triangular and circular compositions. In most cases, the sketches drawn in triangles and circles were the most interesting… and then once released we all went back to drawing in rectangles, because a habit is a habit. Darnit!
With that in mind, here are some figure drawings on ceramics by Pierre Boncompain (born May 17, 1938, in Provence, France).
Pierre Boncompain: figures on ceramic vessels
It could be said that some of these are decorations for the pot. Were the drawings above decorations for the paper?
Matisse observing a vase by Picasso. Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson
[image_with_animation image_url=”10104″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Take a color or a black and white photograph. Cover it with a sheet of tracing paper, or flip it over and hold it up to the light so you can see the image. Use a thick black felt tipped pen to outline the main shapes. Your goal is …
How Diebenkorn Abstracts the Figure Watch the diagonals: how they form shapes, intersect with each other, form pathways across and divide the canvas. See how he crops in close, balancing the positive and negative shapes to be equal in weight, colliding the diagonals with the edge of the canvas or paper, so the edge also …
[image_with_animation image_url=”3161″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Yesterday I posted about a conversation between League friend and painter Fredericka Foster and composer/musician Phillip Glass that was recently published in Nautilus. In the post, Foster and Glass talk about time. Above is another artist’s expression of time. Toying with the idea of how long it takes to make …
A lot of people have been joining our Drawing A Day challenge. While most people prefer to keep their drawings private, a few brave and fabulous people have been posting their drawings to Facebook and Instagram, tagging them #seattleartleague and #drawingaday so we can all enjoy them. Below are few of my favorites posted by friends of the …
Figures on Vessels: Pierre Boncompain
How did it happen that all of our drawings and paintings are in rectangles?
In my online figure drawing class last Sunday, I showed drawings by Matisse, Modigliani, and the very Matisse-like Pierre Boncompain. I talked about positioning the figure within the rectangle, thinking about how the shape of the figure and the shape of the spaces around the figure interact with the shape of the compositional rectangle.
Looking at the drawings by Pierre Boncompain led me to his ceramics, and I remembered something my painting teacher Ed Bereal asked: What if the shape you’re painting on isn’t a rectangle, and what if the surface isn’t flat?
In Fran O’Neill’s recent online drawing class, she had us draw quick thumbnail sketches in a variety of rectangular, triangular and circular compositions. In most cases, the sketches drawn in triangles and circles were the most interesting… and then once released we all went back to drawing in rectangles, because a habit is a habit. Darnit!
With that in mind, here are some figure drawings on ceramics by Pierre Boncompain (born May 17, 1938, in Provence, France).
Pierre Boncompain: figures on ceramic vessels
It could be said that some of these are decorations for the pot. Were the drawings above decorations for the paper?
Related Posts
SAL Challenge: Stained Glass
[image_with_animation image_url=”10104″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Take a color or a black and white photograph. Cover it with a sheet of tracing paper, or flip it over and hold it up to the light so you can see the image. Use a thick black felt tipped pen to outline the main shapes. Your goal is …
Diebenkorn’s Figures
How Diebenkorn Abstracts the Figure Watch the diagonals: how they form shapes, intersect with each other, form pathways across and divide the canvas. See how he crops in close, balancing the positive and negative shapes to be equal in weight, colliding the diagonals with the edge of the canvas or paper, so the edge also …
SAL Challenge: Time (slow)
[image_with_animation image_url=”3161″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Yesterday I posted about a conversation between League friend and painter Fredericka Foster and composer/musician Phillip Glass that was recently published in Nautilus. In the post, Foster and Glass talk about time. Above is another artist’s expression of time. Toying with the idea of how long it takes to make …
Best of Drawing A Day, Week 1
A lot of people have been joining our Drawing A Day challenge. While most people prefer to keep their drawings private, a few brave and fabulous people have been posting their drawings to Facebook and Instagram, tagging them #seattleartleague and #drawingaday so we can all enjoy them. Below are few of my favorites posted by friends of the …