1. CHAPTER 9 ___________________________ DRAWING

2. The Fine Arts Media…
In this next part of the class, we will explore and learn about the materials that artists use to make art, and the history and complexity behind those materials.
Any material used to create a work of art is called a medium. (The plural is media.) If an artist is using several different media, their work’s materials may be referred to as mixed media.
It is now important to pay attention to the material, or the medium, that a piece of artwork is made from. As we work through the chapters, you will see many works of art. We will single out key works as examples of different media, and you will be responsible for knowing how they are made on tests and quizzes.

3. Drawing is the most basic and direct of all the art media.
Drawing is often used for a preliminary sketch to works that use more complicated and expensive media. By drawing or sketching, the artist can experiment with different ideas before they begin their final work.
Drawing has been used in illustration since ancient times, and still is today. Drawing was a way of recording the world around us before the invention of photography. This way of recording history and the world around us pre-dates written language. Drawing conveys information. (It was used in making maps, studying anatomy, recording botanical plants, and much more.
Drawing is considered to be fundamental to the human experience. Drawings have been made for as long as our species has endured. There are drawings that are over 30,000 years old. Due to the direct nature of drawing, it is thought to be reflective of the artist’s soul or spirit.

4. Various examples of cave drawings. Some date as far back as 30,000 BCE.

5. Left: Jacques-Louis David, Study for the Death of Socrates, 1787
Left: Jacques-Louis David, Study for the Death of Socrates, Charcoal heightened in white chalk on gray-brown paper. Right: Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, Oil on canvas. - As we have seen before in class, drawing is often used to practice and create a study, or plan for a larger (often more expensive) work of art. The drawing on the right shows the artist planning out his composition, which we see finished in his painting on the right.

6. Tess Tobolic, Medical Illustration of the human heart
Tess Tobolic, Medical Illustration of the human heart. Pen and ink and brush and wash on paper. We can see in this medical drawing the powerful use of drawing as illustration. This drawing intends to record and document information for the field of medicine, rather than create symbolic content in a work of art. Still, the same materials are used for drawing, and the same skillful care and craftsmanship are given to the detailed image.

7. Leonardo da Vinci, various drawings from sketchbooks, late 1400s.
Leonardo da Vinci was one of many Renaissance artists that explored the human body through anatomy, and these drawing studies reveal his interests. These artists would dissect cadavers (often illegally!) to explore the inner workings of the human body.

8. Excerpts from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1814
Excerpts from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Pen and ink on paper. These illustrations record some of Lewis and Clark’s discoveries as they journeyed into the American West. The map is a very practical

9. Workshop of Pollaiuolo, Youth Drawing, late 15th century
Workshop of Pollaiuolo, Youth Drawing, late 15th century. Pen and ink wash on paper. Have you ever doodled on a piece of paper, or done a quick drawing, then thrown it away, to either start fresh or move onto something else? Paper was not always so available. This drawing, made when paper was rare, shows how most artists use to do sketches. The young boy draws on a block of wood, and he will have to sand the block down to a clean surface when he needs to do a new drawing. Paper was not manufactured in the Western world until the thirteenth century, and it was made from cloth rags. (Papyrus and parchment were used before.) Paper as we know it, made from wood pulp, was not developed until the middle of the nineteenth century!

10. Leonardo do Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St
Leonardo do Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St. John the Baptist, c , 55¾ x 41¼ inches. Charcoal, and possibly wash heightened with white charcoal on paper, then mounted on canvas.

11. Leonardo do Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St
Leonardo do Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne and Infant St. John the Baptist. Drawing came into it’s own as a respectable medium by the end of the fifteenth century. During the Renaissance, artists were though of as geniuses, through whom the divine light of God passed through. The importance of a person as an individual was also a development from the Renaissance. Drawing’s direct nature gives it an autographic quality. The expressive personal style of the artist comes through. (For example: your handwriting is uniquely your own, and bears your autographic style. This is the whole idea behind signatures.)

12. Leonardo da Vinci, Study for a Sleeve, c. 1510-13, 3⅛ x 6¾ inches
Leonardo da Vinci, Study for a Sleeve, c , 3⅛ x 6¾ inches. Pen, lampblack, and chalk on paper. Note the fluidity and spontaneity of the artist’s line. The directness of the medium allows the artist to move his hand quickly over the paper to achieve this. When we look at the movement of the lines, and imagine the artist’s hand moving back and forth quickly to create them, we sense the quickness of his imagination.

13. Michelangelo, Drawing studies for the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo, Drawing studies for the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Conte chalk on paper. This study seems to show the artist’s train of thought. We see him working towards a detailed figure, but also breaking off into studies of the individual parts. This drawing offers clues to the way Michelangelo viewed his subjects and the world, as well as his creative process.

15. Drawing Media
Different drawing materials produce different types of visual effects. Drawing media are generally divided into two categories: dry media and wet media.
Dry Media:
Metalpoint (specifically silverpoint)
Chalk and Charcoal
Graphite
Pastel
Liquid Media:
Pen and Ink
Wash and Brush

16. Metalpoint
Metalpoint is when a stylus (or pointed object) made of gold, silver, or some other metal is applied to a sheet of paper. Silver was the most common stylus, and the medium is frequently referred to as silverpoint.
The metalpoint line, which is pale gray, is very delicate, and can only produce a line as thick as the metal point.
The lines cannot be erased, so it requires some patience and skill.
This mode of drawing is primarily concerned with delineation, or the descriptive representation of a thing seen through contour lines, with hatching added to finish the piece.

17. A piece of silver wire is placed into a holder (to make it more comfortable to work with). The tiny point of the wire makes delicate light marks as it is dragged across the page.

18. Leonardo da Vinci, Study of a woman’s head or of the angel of the Vergine delle Rocce, 1473, 7⅛ x 6¼ inches. Silverpoint with white highlights on prepared paper. Leonardo da Vinci’s skill is obvious. He achieves shadow through careful hatching, but his inclusion of fluid and loose lines gives us a delightful spontaneity in this demanding medium. Metalpoint drawings excel at portraying delicacy and intricate line work. They are limited in value ranges, however. The metal oxidation can only achieve a medium gray as its darkest value. (Artists frequently draw with metalpoint on tinted paper, and often use white chalk to add highlights.)

19. Leonardo da Vinci, Study of Hands, c
Leonardo da Vinci, Study of Hands, c Silverpoint on prepared paper. We can see where Leonardo began to draw the hand on the left, and then changed his mind and drew it higher in the composition. The unfinished hand shows us his process: he begins with delineation, by defining the form through its contour lines, and then, as we see in the two more developed hands, he uses cross-hatching to add more values and depth to the drawing.

20. Jessica Jacobi, Soapbox, 2013. Silverpoint on black prepared paper
Jessica Jacobi, Soapbox, Silverpoint on black prepared paper. Because the paper is black, the silverpoint lines create the highlights, or lighter values of the drawing. (In Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings on lighter paper, the silverpoint lines create the darker values.) The drawing is still comprised of numerous thin lines. All metalpoint drawings use delineation.

21. Charcoal and Chalk
Chalk and Charcoal are much softer, and the ease with which they spread across the paper allows for a more volumetric interpretation of the form, through variations of light and dark.
Natural chalks were in common use by the middle of the sixteenth century, often derived from red ocher hematite (providing an earthy red color), white soapstone, and black carbonaceous shale.
Charcoal sticks were made from burnt wood, and the best were made from hardwood, especially vines. They can be sharpened to a point like a pencil, or held from the side to produce larger more gestural marks.

22. Different chalk sticks, in white, reddish-brown, and black
Different chalk sticks, in white, reddish-brown, and black. You can see a piece of chalk in placed in a bamboo holder, which can make it more comfortable and stable to work with.

23. Various charcoal sticks
Various charcoal sticks. The artist can choose to sharpen the point of a charcoal stick, in order to create fine detail and tighter drawings. The charcoal sticks can also be used with blunt ends, or dragged along their sides, to produce looser, gestural marks.

24. Charcoal and chalk both change in lightness or darkness of the marks depending on the pressure of the artist’s hand. If the artist lightly drags the charcoal or chalk stick across the page, it produces a soft, powdery line. If the hand uses more pressure, pushing hard with the medium across the paper, then the resulting line will be heavy and full of material.

25. Georgia O’Keeffe, Banana Flower, 1933, 21¾ x 14¾ inches
Georgia O’Keeffe, Banana Flower, 1933, 21¾ x 14¾ inches. Charcoal and black chalk on paper. The flower looks volumetric, with rounded surfaces that curve around. This is accomplished through the subtle transitions of light and dark areas that blend into one another. Charcoal and chalk are much softer than metalpoint, and they can spread across the drawing surface easily and blend together. Charcoal and chalk drawings are frequently more concerned with variations of light and dark value rather than delineation.

26. Käthe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Drawing, 1933, 18¾ x 25 inches
Käthe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Drawing, 1933, 18¾ x 25 inches. Charcoal on brown laid Ingres paper. Here the charcoal creates a far more expressive texture. You can almost imagine the motion trail of the artist’s hand dragging the charcoal across the paper.

27. Student work from Life Drawing class
Student work from Life Drawing class. Conte Chalk (white and black) on brown paper. The white chalk provides the highlights and lighter values, and the black chalk is used for the darkest values. The brown paper is used as a value also, for the middle tones.

28. Student work from life drawing class
Student work from life drawing class. Conte chalk (white, red, and black) on cream paper. Here the artist uses a combination of all three chalks colors. This drawing depicts energy and movement, through the loose and curved lines and marks of the chalk. Notice how some areas seem “fuzzier” – where the artist did not push hard with the chalk (the right shoulder and the chair), whereas other areas seem smoother, where the chalk was blended together and applied more heavily (the hair and the arms.)

29. Graphite Graphite is a soft form of carbon similar to coal.
It was discovered in 1564 in Borrowdale, England.
As quality black chalk became increasingly difficult to obtain, the pencil – graphite encased in wood – became more and more popular, eventually becoming the most common drawing tool.
The hardness of pencil graphite can be altered and controlled by mixing different materials into the graphite. The more material that is added, the harder and lighter the pencil will be. The more graphite (and less added material) in the pencil, the softer and darker the pencil will be.

30. Right: lump of graphite. Middle: graphite powder
Right: lump of graphite. Middle: graphite powder. Left: graphite in pencil. You can still make marks with raw graphite lumps or by smearing powder, but the pencil can offer more control and be more comfortable to draw with.

31. Pencils come graded, based on the graphite content (and hardness or softness). This scale begins in the upper left with the hardest pencil (9H), which has the least graphite in it, and transitions down to the softest pencil (9xxB), which has the most graphite. A “2B” pencil is most commonly used for writing.

32. Right: K. A. Renniger, Drawing of Pear, 2011. Graphite on paper
Right: K.A. Renniger, Drawing of Pear, Graphite on paper. Left: Linda Huber, Untitled, Graphite on paper. Graphite can offer a wide variety of mark-making possibilities. It can be loose and rough, or tight and controlled.

33. Vija Celmins, Untitled (Ocean), 1970; 14⅛ x 18⅞ inches
Vija Celmins, Untitled (Ocean), 1970; 14⅛ x 18⅞ inches. Graphite on acrylic ground on paper. Highly developed photorealist graphite drawing. Celmins uses extraordinary detail in her rendering. Graphite can achieve a full range of values. It blends together very easily, and also gives the artist more control over delicate and tight details.

34. Pastel
Pastel is essentially a chalk medium with colored pigment and a non-greasy binder added to it. It is the only colored drawing medium discussed in this lesson.
Pastels come in sticks and are graded as soft, medium, or hard depending on how much binder is in the medium. The more binder, the harder the pastel, and the less intense the color.
Pastels are extremely fragile: marks created by the chalky powder can literally fall off the paper unless the drawing is fixed to the paper. Special ribbed and textured papers were developed to help hold the medium on the surface.

35. Various chalk pastels on the left, and marks made with pastels above
Various chalk pastels on the left, and marks made with pastels above. Pastels are soft and powdery; they do not blend together easily. Instead, artists frequently layer the different colors through cross-hatch marks.

36. Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, c
Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, c ; 26⅝ x 22¾ inches. Pastel on paper. Pastels are essentially sticks of colored pigments that are held together with a non-greasy binder. Pastels do not blend together to mix colors, instead they must be drawn over one another. Degas builds up his color combination in layers of hatch marks, developing a stunning and energetic display of color and line.

37. Mary Cassatt, Young Mother, Daughter, and Son, 1913, 43¼ x 33¼ inches
Mary Cassatt, Young Mother, Daughter, and Son, 1913, 43¼ x 33¼ inches. Pastel on paper. Cassatt was mentored by Degas, and she takes this technique even further. Notice how some of the colored lines go beyond their intended boundaries (they go “outside the lines”), such as the blue cross-hatch lines on the edge of the child’s leg and hand. The implied motion of the marks creates a vibrating energy – it almost seems as though the drawing is moving.

38. Pen and Ink (Liquid Media)
Pen and Ink became widely used through the Renaissance as paper became more and more widely available.
Artists used quill pens made from goose or swan feathers.
Quill pens allow for far more variation in line and texture than is possible with a stylus or pencil.

39. Left: modern quill pen with ink jar
Left: modern quill pen with ink jar. Middle: feather showing sharpened quill tip. Right: feather quill in ink jar.

40. Jean Dubuffet, Corps de Dame, 1950; 10⅝ x 8⅜. Pen, reed pen, and ink
Jean Dubuffet, Corps de Dame, 1950; 10⅝ x 8⅜. Pen, reed pen, and ink. Lines ranging from very fine up to ½ inch thick are created with the pens and ink and layered in this unconventional figure of a woman. The link is drawn with a quill pen, or a pen with a quill tip, which allows for a great deal of line variation. It is similar to calligraphy in writing, where the line is continuous, but flows from very thin to very thick.

41. Mike Biegel, Untitled. Pen and ink drawing on paper.

42. Wash and Brush (Liquid Media)
Wash and Brush occurs when ink is diluted with water and applied with a brush in large, flat areas, to create a wash.
Entire ink drawings can be accomplished with a brush, when the artist uses the small tip of the brush with ink to create lines of varying length.

43. Ink wash (in the small bowl) and the brush to apply it with
Ink wash (in the small bowl) and the brush to apply it with. You can see from the streaks on the bowl that the ink has been diluted and is much lighter than the concentrated black. A Artists can also use many different brush shapes to apply washes.

44. Tiepolo, Flight Into Egypt, c. 1750-60, 9⅝ x 8 inches
Tiepolo, Flight Into Egypt, c , 9⅝ x 8 inches. Pen and Brush with brown ink and brown wash over red chalk on paper. Washes are drawn with brushes, and they use inks that have been diluted with water. The washes are generally large flat areas, which create variation in the values of a drawing.

45. Sesshū Tōyō, Autumn Landscape (Shūkei-sansui). Ink and wash on paper
Sesshū Tōyō, Autumn Landscape (Shūkei-sansui). Ink and wash on paper. This beautiful drawing uses washes to give a wide range of value and depict a sense of space stretching deep into the background. Note how the artist uses very light washes in the distant background to create the mountains.

46. Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls, 1999, varying dimensions
Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls, 1999, varying dimensions. Mixed media installation.

47. Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls, alternate view.

48. Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls, alternate view.