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Chapter Nine: Drawing
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
• From Preparatory Sketch to Work of Art Dry Media
• Liquid Media
• Innovative Drawing Media
Works in Progress
Raphael’s Alba Madonna
Beverly Buchanan’s Shackworks
The Critical Process
Thinking about Drawing:
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
This Chapter Will:
• discuss the significance of drawing as an art form
• identify dry and liquid drawing media
KEY TERMS
medium silverpoint sinopie pencil
charcoal quattrocento cartoon pastel
metalpoint pigment oil stick anime
MyArtsLab RESOURCES
Interactive Flashcards
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION TOPICS
1. Introducing Art Media
Introduce this portion of the text, Part III: The Fine Arts Media, with Henri Matisse’s
painting The Red Studio. The imagery of this painting depicts the interior of Matisse’s
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2. Why Do Artists Draw?
Drawing is one of the most effective and direct forms of communicating an idea and of
recording that idea. Some artists draw in sketchbooks as a way to visualize their ideas for
later works of art while others use drawing as their primary mode of expressing their
ideas. As you will see in this chapter, artists draw for several reasons.
One reason artists draw is to record. The immediacy of drawing materials allows one to
3. How Do You Learn to Draw Well?
Traditional art training was done as an apprenticeship under the work of master artists.
Often the apprentice would copy masterpieces in order to learn the skills and
compositional strategies considered commendable. Today, although drawing is a still a
learned skill, there are other methods. Artist and teacher Betty Edwards, in her book,
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4. The Genius of Drawing: Observation and Preparation
Until the end of the 15th century, a drawing was usually not dated, signed, or preserved.
However, when art historian Georgio Vasari began to collect these sketches and
document artist’s lives during the Renaissance, drawing came into its own. Drawings
came to be seen as the embodiment of the artist’s personality and creative genius. Now
5. Dry versus Wet: Different Media, Different Qualities
Discuss how the various drawing media perform differently, and produce varying results.
Provide the actual media, the tools involved in the varied processes, as well as different
varieties of paper for them to experiment with. Demonstrate how each medium is used,
allowing hands-on practice by the students.
Use these examples from the text to illustrate each medium and its characteristics:
Metal Point: Raphael, Saint Paul Rending His Garments (fig. 269)
Chalk: Kathe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Drawing (fig. 226)
Oil Pastels: Beverly Buchanan, Monroe County House with Yellow Datura (fig. 282)
Graphite: Georges Seurat, Café Concert (fig. 227)
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Oilstick:
Sandy Brooke, Paestum (fig.231), oilsticks are similar to pastels and
creates varied linear qualities, encouraging expressionist works; modeling
is created with hatching and cross-hatching
Ink Wash: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Adoration of the Magi (fig. 237)
washes provide a wider value range and as in this image, the softness of
6. Immediate and Expressionistic
As discussed, drawing is immediate and lends itself to expressionistic works of art.
In her Self-Portrait, Drawing (fig. 226), Käthe Kollwitz was able to reveal the
tremendous expressive potential of the medium. Much of the drawing was done by
7. Pastels Preferred
Edgar Degas stands out as the most prolific and inventive artist to use pastel. He was
attracted to the medium because of its immediacy and the fact that its unfinished quality
seemed to capture the reality of the contemporary scene. In After the Bath, Woman
8. Drawing with Scissors
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After stroke limited his use of traditional drawing materials, Matisse was inspired to
“sketch” by cutting out shapes of paper using scissors. Through this method of sketching,
9. Site Specific: Environmental Drawings
Drawing seems to naturally invite experimentation. To kick-off this discussion of
“alternative drawing media,” identify alternative media for drawing that quite possibly
have not been used by artists yet, such as ketchup, mustard, or baby powder.
CRITICAL THINKING: More Opportunities to Think about Art
1. Works in Progress: Raphael’s Alba Madonna
In The Critical Process, the question asked is, “Can a sketch have more expression or
“life” than the final painting for which it was a study?” The prominence of quick,
expressive lines that often form the basis of sketches would seem to make the answer
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2. Works in Progress: Beverly Buchanan’s Shackworks
Beverly Buchanan is an artist whose chief imagery derives from the dwellings of the rural
poor in the American South. She photographs shacks, draws them with pastel oil sticks,
and constructs small models of them from scraps of wood and metal. Through her work,
3. Thinking about Drawing: Michelangelo’s Sketches for the Sistine Chapel
As it has been demonstrated in this chapter, drawing is one of the most basic and direct of
all media. Initially, drawing was not considered an art in its own right, but only a tool for
teaching and preliminary study. In fact, many of the drawings featured in this chapter
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4. Thinking about Drawing: David Hammons.
David Hammon uses processes and materials that are not conventional, but his finished
products fit within long traditions. His Out of Bounds (fig. 244) appears to be a Pop Art-
type image, calling to mind Jasper John’s targets. His process is anything but traditional,
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Drawing Is Thinking
Drawing, it could be argued, is a way of thinking—the visual equivalent of thinking
2. Are Artists Born to Draw?
Assign an essay in which students answer whether or not they believe drawing is a
3. Leonardo’s Inventions
Have students investigate the sketchbook pages of Leonardo da Vinci and identify the
varied subjects and themes he wrote and sketched about. Access much of this
information at the official Leonardo Home Page link and traditional research in
HANDS-ON PROJECTS
For additional project ideas, remember to investigate the Hands-On Projects found on
MyArtsLab.
1. Communicate with Drawings
Using a pencil, have students draw symbols and pictures that communicate basic daily
functions to someone who does not speak your language. For example: draw a picture
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2. Drawing on the Right Side (Using Betty Edwards’s Techniques)
Have students create contour drawings of an image from a magazine or newspaper by
turning their chosen image upside down and drawing. They should be looking at the
3. Daily Drawing or Draw Daily
Have students create sketchbooks by folding five sheets of 8 1/2” x 11” copy paper in
half and then bind with a rubber band wrapped around the stack, parallel with the fold.
Other Suggested Websites:
Edgar Degas, acknowledged as the master of drawing the human figure in motion, is
exhibited online at www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas/
For more information about Walter de Maria Lightning Field, see
www.diacenter.org/ltproj/lf/index.html
The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, its mysteries, history, and images are online at
numerous sites including the following: www.greatserpentmound.org/ or
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Suggested Videos and DVDs:
A World of Art: Works in Progress, Beverly Buchanan (30 minutes)
Mary Cassatt, Brush with Independence, 2002
Mary Cassatt, American Impressionist, 2002
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1977 (60 minutes)
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain; Seven Lessons to Enhance Creativity and Artistic
Self-Confidence, 1999 (117 minutes)
