Art schools have always been at pains to teach students draughtsmanship as a true measure of their skill. Since the 15th century, from the time of Leonardo da Vinci, artists have filled thousands of pages of sketchbooks to capture the nuances that escape us—the way a finger crooks around another, or a few strokes to suggest the contours of a body or even how a crumpled leaf floats to the earth. Many artists work on their masterpieces, or their more ambitious paintings, after completing a single or a series of drawings to help them gain perspective on the final result, and to correct any anomalies of scale. But drawings are a separate and legitimate part of their oeuvre, complete in and by themselves. For art connoisseurs, these often-neglected examples reflect an artist’s skill and talent.
Drawing & sketching are definitely standalone crafts; it's strange they should be considered the primer for more fuller work rendered by way of painting, print-making, or sculpture. Sketching / drawing are complete in themselves in the sense they go through the motions typical of any art work - ideation, creation & execution. Ajay De's charcoals are an example of this; charcoal allows for a more smudgy rendition of a sketch, while pencils/graphite wouldn't add as much volume by way of spread of colour. It's nice of the writer to examine the sketches and drawings of some of our greats & place them before readers as works of art in themselves.
on Aug 10, 2015