Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Line and Tone

In a recent comment, Johan says he was surprised to see my drawing style being so outlined in contrast to my paintings. I've gotten this comment before and it's worthy of some reflection.
I find the link between drawing and painting for me is in direct mark making. I like to use confident strokes, so with a brush of some width this lends itself to filling in value and color in broad strokes. However, with a .5 mm mechanical pencil tip I find this type of mark making lends itself to lines and details. Maybe I'll try using more graphite sticks as I usually do when I attend figure drawing sessions, though I worry what kind of mess I might make of the coffee shop where I draw. Thanks for the comment Johan, it's a good reminder!



6 comments:

  1. Or charcoal! You could leave a nice little powder pile at your feet. But seriously, it would be nice to see some more tonal drawings posted.

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  2. I actually can see your painting very clearly in your drawings. I feel the same direct assessment of the form and confidence in describing it with a thin pencil line as with you brush strokes, I think you need not feel that your drawing carry the same tonal and stroke based look as your paintings.

    In fact I believe that the two methods compliment and inform each other, when I see your sketchbook drawings I can clearly see the same hand and movements as in your oil paintings. The drawings just are more concerned with structure and design while the paintings focus on color and value hierarchy to create depth of field.

    This has been my evaluation of Rob's stylistics! Phew!

    <3 Cory

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  3. Wow, thanks for the evaluation Cory! I think you picked up on a few things that I wasn't even thinking about.

    Though I may still do some tonal drawing for you,Jeremy Elder, and the rest.

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  4. Well I most certainly agree with Cory :)

    The more I look at your work, the more I see what he means.
    The fact that there seems to be a big contrast at first, is actually a good thing imho.
    When looking closer, the same amount of dedication, stroke/line economy and placement consideration can be seen.

    So perhaps my previous comment tells more about my observational skills (or lack of)than about your art :)

    Keep inspiring plz!

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  5. Well there has to be conflicting ideas and observation to create discussion right! Without differences in thought we would never have to consider possibilities and therefore would never come to understand what we already have and the many possible paths that we can take with our work, or anything else for that matter!

    Everyone's individual observations are never insignificant :)

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  6. Very true Cory!
    Furthermore, even if you now feel that your comment lacked observation, Johan, it's still an important indicator to me of how many people may see my work and I thank you for it.
    It's important to be constantly rethinking, examining, and open to change in order to develop.

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