Jasper Salwey - About Sketching: The Art and Practice of Capturing the Moment

Frontispiece

Plate 17

Plate 1

FRONTISPIECE

SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR BY J. S. SARGENT, R.A.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2017, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published as The Art and Practice of Sketching: Its History and Technique in AH Media by B. T. Batsford, Ltd., London, in 1930.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Salwey, Jasper, author. | Squirrell, Leonard Russell, 18931979, writer of foreword.

Title: About sketching : the art and practice of capturing the moment / Jasper Salwey; With a Foreword by Leonard Squirrell.

Other titles: Art and practice of sketching

Description: Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, 2017. | This Dover edition, first published in 2017, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published as The Art and Practice of Sketching: Its History and Technique in All Media by B. T. Batsford, Ltd., London, in 1930.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016049205 ISBN 9780486815893 (paperback) | ISBN 0486815897

Subjects: LCSH: Landscape drawingTechnique. | Figure drawingTechnique. |Interior architecture in art. | BISAC: ART / Techniques / Drawing.

Classification: LCC NC795 .S3 2017 | DDC 741.2dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049205

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

81589701 2017

www.doverpublications.com

By LEONARD SQUIRRELL, R.E.

FROM both a literary and an informative point of view it is a difficult task for me to write here anything useful on the subject of sketching, for Mr. Jasper Salwey has covered the ground so admirably and exhaustively that he almost renders a foreword superfluous. I welcome, however, the opportunity of emphasising his central and recurring theme, i.e. the great importance of the sketch in the developing history of art, and the vital need for the modern student to be continually sketchingand still sketching.

This is not a volume of dull and passionless information, an exposition of a few pet methods of technique; it is by no means an ordinary text-book, but an illuminating and understanding survey of an immense subjecta subject which makes a great claim on the attention of all who are interested in living and potent Art.

As it is unquestionably Nature which inspires the entire expression of manfor even his imaginary world is derived from the concrete world around himso must the inspired vigour of a sketch, created whilst en rapport with Nature be more expressive than a slowly evolved and considered finished work as we generally term a studio production. To deal with sketching is to deal with the essence of creative art, and in this volume Mr. Salwey has realised, and risen to, the bigness of his subject. Even in the midst of practical discussion of the various media and their uses, there runs, persistently, an imaginative understanding of its sthetic aspects.

To those who are acquainted with his previous books, uniform with this one, viz. The Art of Drawing in Lead Pencil and Sketching in Lead Pencil, for Architects and Others, it will come as a revelation to find that he can write as well and as usefully on a multiplicity of media as he has done on the use of lead pencil alone. On the latter he has become an authority, and his own work in pencil illustrates very adequately his appreciation of its wide range of possibilities. It is interesting to know that he has personally essayed the practice of the various media mentioned in these pages; therefore he writes as a practical worker, and not merely as a critic.

This book is compiled, like the other two, for the benefit of students, and for the support of true Art. In a time when stunting in art is increasingly a temptation, it should do definite service in bringing home to its readers the need of continual sincere contact with Nature as the fountain-head of pictorial inspiration. Its survey of the diligent and unremitting toil of the early masterstoil enthusiastically embraced for the primary purpose of acquiring knowledge and powershould prove inspiring and energising to students and artists alike.

Although, in these days, the production of very involved finished paintings, such as elaborate historical scenes, or subject pictures, has almost disappeared, I feel that we sometimes err in swinging to the opposite extreme, assuming that the slightest and most fragmentary study is worthy of a place on the wall of an important exhibition. It may, indeed, be so in some cases, but a real danger lies in too readily giving a disproportionate value to transitory sketches or studies, and neglecting the discipline of fighting out the full area of a larger and more considered finished work. We should not, and Mr. Salwey stresses this maxim, lose sight of the fact that a sketch is primarily a means to an end. When we sketch, we seek to re-create a pulsating and intimate contact with Nature, but we cannot capture to the full, immediately, every quality which we observe: colour, form, tone, movement, composition, etc. It is in the carefully contemplated finished work that our several sketches are co-ordinated and refined, and in which we can add our personal message to what Nature has said to us.

In vitality and freshness of statement, however, the sketch has generally the advantage, and this quality constitutes its greatest claim to serious recognition. How fascinating and deeply satisfying masterly sketches are! We range with delight over the names of menold and modernwho have placed a treasury of inspired work before us. Rembrandt, who stood supreme in his power over both line and tone, and who always said something virile and instinct with life even in his most hasty note; Turner, with his versatile frenzy; John Sell Cotman, with his vision of large and noble masses; Constable, who captured the unceasing movement of sky and trees with a sparkle and vibrance hitherto unknown; D. Y. Cameron, imbued with the grandeur of his solemn Scottish hills; Muirhead Bone, superb in draughtsmanship, revealing the beauty of buildings in our day. How long could not this catalogue be continued?

Mr. Salwey reviews the masters in intriguing detail, and the various media in which they worked with very practical helpfulness. My hope is that students of pictorial art may find their fingers itching beyond their usual wont as a result of reading this book, and feel impelled to sketch more seriously and assiduously than ever before.

THE main object of this volume is to encourage the practice of sketching, a practice which has already performed a function of vital importance in the development of graphic art, and which must continue to do so if the future is to produce achievements comparable with those of the past. An attempt has been made to supply an outline of the methods proper to the various media, and a brief review of the work of the great masters of the past and of the present day who have employed them with distinction. It is hoped that the student who is earnest and determined, and who regards Art as a serious and noble occupation, and also those of the general public who desire to view its manifestations with a deeper understanding, will find something more in these pages than a mere restatement of what is common knowledge, and perhaps a point of approach which will reveal new aspects of the subject.