Peter Stanyer - A Foundation Course In Drawing

Most people draw at times, doodling on a phone pad, explaining a route, drawing an idea. Any time that we deliberately leave some kind of trace, we draw. Drawings can be composed of any material light, charcoal, lead, leaves, stones, air, and so on both as support (the thing the drawing is laid on) and trace (the drawing itself).

Before beginning, ask yourself why you wish to draw. If you draw anyway, how can you improve? You may draw distractedly, to fill in time, or for some other reason. However, even in these drawings, you are drawing to express, represent, understand, show, or comment on yourself and the world.

We presume that in beginning this book, your purpose is to draw, and therefore that drawing must have a purpose for you. You may not be fully conscious of this purpose indeed many people are often deliberately not so but it is found both in the impetus to draw and in the fact of the drawings existence. In addition, a drawing performs a social function it is located on a wall in a frame, on a table at a building site, as a doodle on a pad and its function governs the kind of drawing that is made.

A drawing is a product of perception. There is a link between the particular nature of picture perception and natural, everyday perceptual activity. Drawings convey information through a set of agreed-upon, nonarbitrary codes. However, these codes issue from our perceptual activities. There is a causal link between a depiction (drawing) and the real world. A drawing is also a product of the person presiding over the materials, who organizes it or them in particular ways to encompass and explain a perception and purpose, which may be in place in advance, discovered in the process of drawing, or understood only afterwards. The materials used and the means of production are part of the meaning of a drawing.

A drawing, therefore, has a purpose, is born and exists as a perception, and is produced. What we are trying to accomplish is the fusion or bonding of our purpose and our perception in the production of a drawing. We therefore need to attend to the three ps purpose, perception, and production in elaborating a curriculum for drawing.

A drawing is infused by the person drawing, speaks of itself and the culture of drawing, and reveals and is something of the world. We need also, then, to place our examination of the three ps against the context of the person drawing, the drawing itself, and the something represented in the drawing. It is with these fundamental concerns that we advance the projects that follow.

Taken as the whole the projects explore theories and practices in drawing for people of different ability levels. The course is divided into five distinct topics: life drawing, landscape, still life, abstraction, and drawing systems. Each topic is a discrete part and may be worked through independently of the other parts. Reading and drawing through each part, a section at a time, is one way of using the book. Alternatively, you could take one section from each part and work through them in turn: reading Section 1 in each part, then Section 2 in each, and so on. By using the five parts simultaneously, and overlapping the subject matter of each in this way, you can proceed on a broad front.

What we present here has been derived from the experience of fifteen years teaching in art schools in London. Rather than a single, absolute method for drawing, our series of projects and explanations attends to drawing as an act that reflects the complexity of human experience.

The book should be used as a companion, guide, and teacher in the place where you draw. But since we do not have the benefit of person-to-person communication with you, we also urge you to respond to something a voice beyond the words of the book. Imagine the voice encouraging you to progress a drawing through that moment when it appears hopeless and you feel the only course open to you is to abandon it.

As you work through the projects, you are not only drawing, but also learning how to draw. Do not posit some other drawing as a goal for yourself and try to match it. You will only improve by addressing your own ideas and perceptions.

Most of the projects in this book rely on the following standard drawing materials, all of which are available from good art supply stores:

Pencils: You should have on hand grades 2H, HB, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, and 6B (H being harder and B being softer). If no specific grade of pencil is specified, use an HB pencil.

Cont chalk and crayons: Cont chalk is a compressed, crumbly material and cont crayon is a waxy, oil-based crayon. You will need sienna, black, and white colors of each.

Charcoal: Except when otherwise specified, use vine charcoal, which comes as a flaky, dark brown/black stick. Compressed charcoal is denser and like chalk in texture. Charcoal pencils are charcoal-based pencils.

Pastels: You should have both oil-based and non-oil-based crayons in shades of black and white.

Felt-tip pens: Use a black, medium-sized, water-based pen nothing too heavy.

Ballpoint pens: Use only black ballpoint pens.

Erasers: Use either a kneaded eraser or a plastic eraser. The kneaded eraser is much more malleable and removes only softer markings, while the plastic eraser is used for removing darker and stronger marks.

Paper: Unless otherwise specified, use drawing paper with a medium tooth. Some projects ask specifically for newsprint paper. This is a coarse, inexpensive, lightweight paper.

Drawing board and easel: Use a drawing board and easel that will allow you to work with 22- x 30-in or 30- x 44-in paper sizes.

Other materials: Some projects require additional materials, such as glue, scissors, colored pencils, tracing paper, and so on. Be sure to review the materials list provided for each project before starting and make sure you have everything you need.

The life room is a peculiar place and life drawing is a bizarre activity. A group of people crowd round and draw a usually naked figure who they, more often than not, do not know. They try to wrest a likeness of the model by dint of effort and skill. However, often they do not reflect on the ways in which they are doing this or to what end. Before embarking on a program of life drawing, you need to ask yourself how and why you are doing it. Your answers to these two questions should qualify each other. How you draw is contingent on why you are drawing.

We do not dispute that life drawing is an important aspect of an art education, but if it is to be significant, it must extend into the rest of life and begin to touch upon things that matter to you. Otherwise it is an empty activity the development of a skill with no purpose. It is necessary to point out the limitations of the life room so that you may eventually use the activity fruitfully. People bring many preconceptions to the figure. We tend to know it too well and in too many ways. We know the human body from within and without. This knowledge is essential for drawing, but if it isnt edited it can be inhibiting in both drawing and seeing. We need to find equivalents for our feelings, thoughts, and observations of the figure in the ways we see and depict it.

As we draw the human figure, we both reveal and hide ourselves, and it. We need to be aware of what it is we need to reveal. What is the occasion and purpose of the drawing? Is it a rite of magic, or worship? A reflection of the domestic or public figure? A figure to be venerated or hated? Further, how does it speak of drawing itself?