Drawing Skills Part 3 : Drawing Outdoors
Following on from my feedback for Assignment Two, I am learning how colour plays a part in the finished piece of artwork but what brings the image to life is Tone. Of all the literature I have been reading, the common theme is that tone is arguably the most important part of bringing a picture to life and if done correctly, the actually painting could have all of the colour removed and it would still look right just from the grey scale of tone. To compliment this, I am also looking at my Mark Making and Shading techniques, which I have found is a science and art form all by itself.
I think my biggest obstacle with Drawing Skills Part 3 will be drawing out in a public space having suffered social anxiety in the past. I am unsure as to how productive this would be as I would
A) try to rush through the sketch and
B) be conscious of those around me to focus on the scene in front of me. But my plan is to draw from inside a car where I can and to chose areas where I am least likely to be disturbed.
Research Point : Artists Depiction of Landscapes
I thought I would start my research into landscape art by asking the question, why paint them, what is the importance of Landscape art and when did landscapes become respected art? I think early cave drawings, Egyptian Hyroglifics and Petroglyphs served to document or chart anything from an event that had happened, to the passing on of information, to an expression felt by the scriber at the time. It is almost as if that by leaving documented proof that is tangible, the person can not only pass down to others whatever it is they are trying to convey but in essence leave an eternal footprint of themselves or their being. I do think there is an element of personal reflection and pleasure with traditional landscape though, and not just the act to document the scene, otherwise this way of recording information would of died out with the invention of the photograph for example. I also think there is quite a symbiotic relationship between an artist and their subject because the artist sees beauty in, lets say a scenic view, which may act as a stimulus, affecting their emotions in different ways, resulting in shifts of creativity and inspiration and how the painting turns out. The result resembles that of "Reward and Reenforcement" which I believe explains partly why we enjoy to paint. But then who get the credit, the artist for the talent that has come from within or the scene for helping to provoke the response?
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain was born in France but spent his life, first in Germany and then in Italy, where he stayed in 1628. His interest in landscapes was probably initially influenced during his time as an assistant to the landscape artist Agostino Tassi. Interestingly Lorrain worked not only from life but used a vast amount of sketches of the roman countryside which was integrated at a later time into his finished pieces. This meant that Lorraine was not so much looking for accuracy of the countryside he was painting but an attempt to shape it into something he personally desired it to be. The one constant was that his landscapes would contain figures and often appeared to have religious or mythical reference. Which is interesting because when first looking at Claude Lorraine's work, my first reaction was that they were quite fairy tale in style. Lorrain exerted himself to creating quite Idealist landscapes from the sketches he had done, which could suggest a sense of wanting to control his surroundings, or an unhappiness with real life, thus using art to escape.
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| It is suggested that this watercolour landscape painting by Durer maybe of an area near Nuremburg , Germany and thought to have been painted around 1496. What is interesting is that Durer used Watercolour for the first time in a landscape, raising its potential as a serious medium to use. Familiar with engraving, Oil Painting and Ink, I think Durer was trying to convey a more fluid approach to nature, the delicate trees, plants, clouds and water, and the transparency that watercolour offers. The British Museum Press website describes this piece by saying "Dürer's fluid brush and deep colours make it a very beautiful and harmonious depiction of restful nature" |
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| Industrial Landscape (Lowry 1955) |
A very typical type of cityscape that Lowry painted throughout his career. Lowry painted in quite a holistic way, sometimes taking various buildings from the local area, and incorporating them into a painting as a whole, like the example above, the Stockport Viaduct in the top left of the picture. Lowry had a difficult childhood, being the carer of his mother who suffered mental illness and from what I have researched about Lowry, he is someone who made best with whatever situation was upon him and this can certainly be said in terms of where he lived. According to the article
LS Lowry - His Life and Career when speaking of the industrial town of Pendlebury: "At first I detested it, and then, after years I got pretty interested in it, then obsessed by it"
He goes on to say how by missing a train, he came across a spinning mill that he never stopped to look at previously and became fascinated by it. So instead of begrudging that lack of traditional landscape he welcomed it, and Lowry turned this negative into a positive and his interest in Industial Landscape came into being. His artwork suggests to me that Lowry was a storyteller or a lover of stories, and looking at the simplicity of his matchstick men, it is as though you would able write a story about each of them in this setting, what their day would be like and where have they been? for example.
http://www.thelowry.com/ls-lowry/his-life-and-work/
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lowry-industrial-landscape-t00111
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/claude
http://www.artble.com/artists/claude_lorrain
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/a/albrecht_d%C3%BCrer,_landscape-1.aspx
