3

Stretching the Truth

Making the Familiar Strange / Progressively Changing / Exaggerating Proportions / Playing With Scale / Distorting With Grids / Drawing Metaphors / Odd Juxtapositions

Drawing expressively is all about finding ways of intensifying and dramatizing your subjects to inspire a new emotion in your viewer. An accurately drawn object puts the viewer in touch with that object on a literal level — they automatically know exactly what it is and what it's used for. An exaggerated or distorted drawing of the same object tends to touch the viewer on an emotional level, inviting them to see it in a new way. It makes the familiar strange.

Most of us honed our drawing skills by drawing things as they appear. We trained our hand to follow our eye. Happily, these same eye/hand skills, learned through careful observation, come in handy when we draw things as they might appear. This point, covered in the last chapter, bears repeating: Drawing from observation provides a powerful foundation for drawing from imagination. It's also true that transforming observation into imagination requires something altogether new.

Shift Your Perspective

You need new daring in your drawing — a greater willingness to suspend your inner critic, that voice that's always advising you to play it safe. From this new perspective, rather than seeing objects as having precise dimensions and contours, you see them as raw material — material to be twisted and pulled into an unexpected result. As you draw, think of your subject as clay. This new perspective liberates the imagination and opens up a whole world of possibility.

Making the Familiar Strange

Here's another way to think of it. The reality you observe is like the picture on your TV screen. You like its sharpness and reliability, but sometimes yearn for something more expressive and poetic. Now, suppose that you found fiddling with some control knobs on the back of the set alters the images in interesting and unusual ways. Let's say that you could make the colors more vivid, or the characters more alive. You could make the images wiggly and wavy, blend foreground with background and turn clouds into people and people into trees. In this chapter we'll investigate ways of drawing in a new, more expressive mode, twiddling the knobs of reality to create something unusual, provocative or metaphoric.

PROGRESSIVE CHANGE

Here's another demonstration of how distortion gets easier when you do it in stages. I like to do it in groups of three. Here, the first umpire was drawn from a magazine photograph. The middle stage exaggerated the action and altered the proportions. This emboldened me to make more radical changes in the last drawing.

exaggerating proportions

We recognize differences by comparing and contrasting. If you want to make something look big in your drawing, put it next to something small. If you have only one object, the parts should contrast with each other. Enlarging some parts of your subject while reducing others is a way of intensifying the drawing. It creates an exaggerated emphasis, expressively calling attention to certain aspects of a person or an animal. The results may be amusing or disturbing, but almost always attention-getting.

In the animal drawings on these pages I've simply shrunk or expanded a certain part in relation to the others. Care was taken to represent the parts accurately, though not in proper proportion.

ALL HORN

It's interesting how exaggeration begins to look normal as you draw. By the time I finished this sketch, this outlandish yak seemed quite believable to me.

SMALL HEAD, BIG BODY

Reducing the head size usually makes an animal look bigger — more physical.

LONG LEGS, BIG FEET

These creatures look like they were born to run. The dog's small head makes it appear far away, as if his body were extremely long.

STRETCHING AND SQUEEZING THE HORSE

The horse represents so many things to us: grace, power, speed, work, companionship, etc. Exaggerating different parts brings out different symbolic aspects.

emphasizing differences

Difference is information. We are aware of things because they stand out from their background. We are aware of qualities by contrasting and comparing. One way to make the familiar strange is to emphasize differences. That is, put two elements in a drawing and push the differences between them to extremes.

EXAGGERATING DIFFERENCES

The first drawing is a sketch I made of two guys waiting in an airport. Something about the difference between their poses and body types caught my eye.

Later, I made a second sketch from the original. I exaggerated the differences between these two figures, making the heavier man much larger and the thinner guy more angular and bookish. For some reason they began to look like monuments to me. I imagined them as a stone sculpture in a park.

So I drew them again, this time in pencil. By using soft shading and eliminating details, I attempted to show them as if they were made of granite. And I added pigeons.

exercise 14

Progressive Distortion

Make a series of three drawings (any subject), each more distorted than the last. Draw your original either from life or from a photograph. Then make each of your other two from the previous drawing. Forgo timidity! The last drawing should be greatly exaggerated.

playing with scale

Sometimes it's fun to make a composite drawing from different sources and to wildly exaggerate size differences. Here I've put the artist Gustave Courbet in the driver's seat of socialite Gaby Deslys' limousine. The drawing is arresting because it almost takes a moment for the viewer to realize that Courbet is a giant.

Gustave Courbet — from a photograph

Gaby Deslys and her limousine — from a photograph

exercise 15

Scale Play

Make a composite drawing by combining elements from two different photographs. Make some of the elements out of scale — distort and exaggerate the size differences between them so that small things appear huge and vice versa. In all other ways, see if you can make the scene convincing and realistic.

forced distortion

Many artists — even experienced professionals — find it difficult to deliberately distort their drawings. Paradoxically, good training in observation can inhibit the ability to draw expressively. Here's a two-step process that can help you break out of that constraint. It almost guarantees a more extreme and often striking image. In the first step, drawing blind, map the basic outlines of your subject with a bold, black marker. As you draw, keep your eyes on the subject (or photograph) and not on your drawing. You may need to cheat a little by glancing at your paper from time to time to keep your place.

When you have completed this contour map, shift to a ballpoint pen and begin carefully filling in shading and details, now freely looking back and forth between subject and paper. The natural distortion that occurs when you draw blindly ensures that no amount of realistic shading will make your drawing look exact.

1 Keeping your eyes on the photo and your paper off to the side, draw the outlines of your subject in bold marker.

2 Move the paper directly in front of you. Add shadows, tones and details with a ballpoint pen.

1 Draw blind with a felt-tip marker.

2 Fill in shading and details with a ballpoint pen.

1 In this blind drawing of singer Frank Sinatra, I did the features as well as the overall contours.

2 Even after filling in, it doesn't look much like Sinatra. But that's OK. I did it my way.

COMBINING AND EXAGGERATING PHOTOS

This drawing was made from two separate photographs. I drew the Syrian man first, and then added the Lebanese woman from another photograph behind him. I like the exaggerated difference in the sizes of their heads.

SKETCHING QUICKLY

Quick studies, like this one of a North African man, can have the same slight, natural distortions as drawing blind.

THE SLIGHT DISTORTION OF DRAWING BLIND

At first glance, the proportions of this young girl almost look normal. But her arm and feet show the strange distortions of drawing blind.

exercise 16

Forced Distortion

Make a blind contour drawing of a person using a bold felt-tip marker — glance at your paper only occasionally to find your place. Keep your marker in contact with your paper as much as possible. When you have completed the contours, switch to a ballpoint pen and complete the details of the drawing as realistically as possible, this time looking at your work.

distortion grids

One interesting way of making the familiar strange is using grids. This method involves dividing a photograph or one of your drawings into even squares. Then you make a second, distorted grid (with the same number of squares) to guide you in creating a new drawing.

Make the second grid on tracing paper, then slip it under a fresh sheet of drawing paper and place it on a light table. Make your distorted drawing simply by following the original, square for square. For some people this kind of work is too mechanistic, but I find it relaxing, and the results are often surprising.

REFERENCE GRID

Reference grids are always rectangular and divided into even squares. Label the horizontal axis 1, 2, 3, etc. and the vertical axis a, b, c, etc.

DISTORTED GRID

Grids can be distorted in numerous ways, so long as you have the same number of squares and they're numbered in the same way as your reference grid. Do this grid on tracing paper, then slip it under a fresh sheet of paper and place them on a light table to make your distorted drawing. You can reuse the grid for other drawings.

DRAWING SHAPES, NOT THINGS

These drawings, made from a movie still, illustrate the stretching and bending potential of distorted grids. The image develops in unpredictable, often amusing ways.

This way of working has a side benefit: It offers a vivid demonstration of the power of drawing shapes rather than things. You mostly work out the drawing as a mosaic, one square at a time. You pick a square in the original, find the matching square on the distorted grid and duplicate the lines, shapes and tones of the original. Out of this abstract process the overall image seems to emerge almost magically.

perspective grids

Here's another grid idea that yields interesting results. This method takes a photograph or drawing and puts it into perspective. As before, this requires making two grids. The first is the reference grid — a rectangular grid that divides your photograph into squares. The next step, making a grid in perspective, is a wee bit tricky, so follow the steps on the facing page carefully. Be sure you have the same number of squares labeled in the same way in each grid. It's possible to do these grids without a T-square and triangle, but having these tools sure makes it easier.

The effect of distortion grids and perspective grids is to stretch and bend the image while keeping the relationships constant. These drawings of writer Mark Twain are hugely distorted, yet they're still recognizable.

MARK TWAIN

Photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston

making a perspective grid

1The reference grid is always rectangular and composed of even squares. Squares are numbered on one axis, lettered on the other. Do this grid on tracing paper and tape it to the photograph.

2Draw a horizontal baseline. Locate a vanishing point somewhere over its center. Mark off equal parts on the baseline, the same number as in your reference grid. Label them 1, 2, 3, etc. Draw lines from these points to your vanishing point.

3 Draw a second horizontal line, then a diagonal line (here shown in red) from the bottom left corner through the next point of intersection, shown circled. Notice that your diagonal intersects each of the other converging lines.

4 Draw additional horizontals through each point of intersection. Notice how these horizontals get closer together as they approach the top of the grid. This grid can be done on tracing paper, and then taped to the back of a fresh sheet of paper and placed on a light table for the final drawing.

exercise 17

Gridwork

Choose a photograph of a face that's at least 8½″ × 11″ (22cm × 28cm). Make a reference grid of squares on a piece of tracing paper, numbered across the bottom and lettered along the side. Tape it to the photograph. Then make a distortion grid (also on tracing paper) with an equal number of squares, but with curved lines instead of straight. Number and letter these squares just as before. Tape this grid under a fresh sheet of paper and place them on a light table. Copy the photograph square by square.

metaphoric seeing

Most of us as young children have had the experience of lying in bed at night and staring into the closet, where a barely visible coat or robe begins to look like something sinister, such as a murderer or a monster. The longer you look, the more real it becomes. This is an early and terrifying example of our ability to construct an elaborate reality from just a few visual cues.

We may not have appreciated it at the time, but this is a creative gift endowed to all human beings. Metaphoric seeing is simply looking at something and seeing something else — not just something different, but something strange and vivid that pushes the limits of your imagination. Metaphoric seeing is a skill that can be developed. When you take the time to look not only at, but into stains and clouds and gnarled branches, you begin to see things. These are not always distinct and complete, but they often give you a strong start on a drawing that you never would have thought of doing otherwise.

A potted plant? An upside-down pair of bloomers?

An angel? A man throwing a pizza?

A hideous face? A fan?

Two octopuses dueling? A mosquito?

A garden gate? A house plant?

A pelvis? Two ants greeting?

If you can see images in these inkblots, you're seeing metaphorically. What you see, however, might be different from what I see. That's really the point of metaphoric seeing — we bring our own interpretation to reality. Above are some of the interpretations I've gotten from different people. Try your own.

I took this photo of a towel draped on a chair. The folds and shadows suggested the face of a primate to me, so I made this drawing, Gorilla.

A little shift in perspective can transform the image you see. I altered the photo slightly to reveal a hooded wraith.

Further visual tinkering reveals a three-figure composition. Interestingly, the three photos look quite similar at first glance.

Making Metaphors

The point of metaphoric seeing is that it presents images you would never think of drawing. It offers not only unusual subjects, but subjects in unique positions, angles and proportions. It takes you beyond the conventional. There is a kind of accidental and random quality to it that's so often essential in creating something new.

BATHROOM FAUCET

CRUMPLED PAPER

HEAD FROM ABOVE

WEARY SOLDIER

UNNNNGH!

WADDED-UP T-SHIRT

MINOTAUR (Accidental coffee stain, with pencil added)

inspiration in the clouds

Subtle, ever-changing and complex, clouds offer the richest possibilities for metaphoric seeing. You can find in them not only strange objects, but unusual combinations of strange objects. Because clouds are in continual motion, I find it best to photograph them first and draw from the photographs.

Pick a sunny day when there are lots of billowy cumulus clouds, and shoot lots of pictures that can be sorted through later. Accept right away that a cloud image will not likely be distinct and obvious. The metaphoric eye works by hints and clues; the image needs to be coaxed out.

When making drawings like these, feel free to depart from the photographs. The actual clouds are a starting point — a useful guide, not a precise template. See if you can capture some of the soft, puffy cloud texture while you develop the metaphoric image. Draw as if you had one foot in the metaphor and one foot in the clouds (so to speak).

SEARCH FOR THE IMAGE

When I first looked at this cloud formation, I couldn't see anything in it. Now I can't look at the photo without seeing fish.

A GUIDE, NOT A TEMPLATE

Initially I thought this looked vaguely like an animal's face — but there was just enough detail in the upper area to suggest two figures.

exercise 18

Metaphoric Drawings

Arrange a piece of cloth in various ways under a strong light. With each arrangement, see if you can find a face, figure or animal. If you see one that looks promising, make a sketch of it. After you have made a few sketches, pick one, put it on the light table and make a more complete drawing. Your finished piece should look partly like the cloth and partly like your metaphor.

Take a few photographs of clouds and draw an image you see in one of the formations. Use a soft pencil and a kneaded eraser to pick out light areas, and keep the drawing soft and subtle.

SUN BATHERS

I wanted these two figures to look solid but not realistic, so I copied the light pattern and kept the details to a minimum.

POODLE AND SQUAWKING PARROT

This one seemed obvious from the start — the poodle's face and the open beak of the parrot were so clearly formed in the clouds. Well, to me, anyway.

THE SORCERER AND THE OWL

I don't know what they're doing, but it all looks rather sinister.

TWO MONKS ON A FROG, CHASING A KNIGHT

This kind of thing is just too bizarre to make up without the help of clouds.

odd juxtapositions

Imagine walking down a quiet country road and stumbling upon a huge object standing some thirty feet high. As you stare up at it, you realize you're looking at a high-heeled shoe. What would you do? Laugh? Look around suspiciously? Conclude that you're in a dream? Whatever you do, your first reaction is likely to be disorientation. People need to make sense out of what they see, and when they don't, it provokes a queasy, off-kilter feeling that something's not quite right.

Artists — particularly the surrealists — like to evoke this feeling in their audience and play with it. Drawing things out of scale and putting things together that don't belong are two classic ways of doing this. There are endless possibilities for provocatively combining familiar objects. One secret to achieving the right effect is drawing accurately. Render each element to look perfectly normal and conventional, no matter how absurd the whole is.

BUGLE AND NAILS

DINNERWARE AND SHOE

GLOVES AND BRANCHES

FACE AND ANTS

SPAGHETTI AND GOLF BALLS

MARKER AND WATER

DOG AND POPCORN

TRAIN AND NEWSPAPER

MOUSETRAP AND PHONE

FEET AND TWINE

HAT AND STONES

APPLES AND STOOP

A consistent pattern of light and shadow helps create the illusion that these elements belong together. Be clear about the direction of the light source and where the shadows fall, even if you have to invent these things.

In this drawing, an odd juxtaposition mixes unlikely objects that are often out of scale with each other. Interestingly, when you render this sort of thing in a realistic technique, the scene becomes almost believable. Here I have combined toy trucks with peanuts, first making separate sketches of each. Before making a final drawing, I did a planning sketch so I could see just how things fit together.

exercise 19

Familiar But Strange

Combine two objects that you don't normally associate with each other into a single drawing. Or, if you choose a more conventional pairing, draw them wildly out of scale with each other.

Take your time on this drawing. Work from direct observation as much as possible. Make your objects look convincing using a consistent light source, realistic shadows and significant details. Map out your arrangement prior to proceding to the final drawing.

MICHAEL MITCHELL

A Master Among Masters

I have never met a more accomplished draftsman than Michael Mitchell. I worked for Michael at the Famous Artist's School in Westport, Connecticut, where he developed much of their home study teaching program. He went on to work in film animation, creating storyboards that were works of art in themselves — considerably more beautiful than the films made from them. Now he teaches drawing to a fortunate few at CalArts in southern California.

Michael speaks in elliptical metaphors, jumping quickly from one to another and leaving as much unexplained as explained — but always with an utter reverence for the art of drawing. Here are some of his comments to his students:

• Drawing from life has much to do with drawing life. It has little to do with copying. It has much to do with crystallizing your thoughts and perceptions of another human being and lifting out of thin air your literally magic translations from three-dimensional reality to the two-dimensional surface. In drawing from life you will be creating a sense of life that, were it not for you, would not exist.

• Our eyes are a two-way processor of sight, sound, thought, meaning and understanding: the conduit connecting the outer world with our inner being. Our vision isn't one-fifth that of an eagle but our insight is a trillion times more. When we draw in the most creative sense, our observational powers move up to those of the eagle. We begin to perceive the extra-dimensional stretch of sight as it incorporates instinct with vision.

Michael's listeners must do a fair amount of interpreting, actively filling in the gaps with their own ideas. This keeps them attentive and involved. And Mitchell's prodigious drawing skill lends enormous credibility to his speaking.

Soft and subtle, this dog/chair drawing looks partly realistic, partly like an animal anatomy lesson. Notice too the radical and dynamic angle of the stool.

Anatomy of a Dog-Chair HB pencil

I love the way the shapes of this grasshopper merge and blend with the abstract shapes of the foliage.

Bushes at the Bottom Ballpoint pen

BENDING AND STRETCHING

These self-portraits show how pliant and malleable a face can be in the hands of an accomplished draftsman. While extremely distorted, they all capture Michael's essential features — though I assure you that they are not flattering even on his worst days.

Self Mutilations Ballpoint pen

This sequence was inspired by a quote by the surrealist poet André Breton: “Anyone who can't imagine a man galloping across a tomato on a horse is a fool.” Maybe so, but these drawings made me think of an alternative quote:“Galloping across a tomato on a horse is a tricky business.”

Literalizing metaphors is one of the ways of making the familiar strange.