6

Exploring Pattern

Repeating With Variation / Interpreting Nature / Describing Form With Rhythmic Lines / Merging Shapes / Revealing Shape Characteristics / Mapping and Coloring / Escher Tiling

When you look at the landscape from a great height, you see that everything is in a pattern. Fields, forests and lakes appear as a set of interlocking shapes like little puzzle pieces. Some of the boundaries are sharp and defined, others soft and indefinite. And even though we know we're looking at the real world, everything seems flattened out and vaguely abstract.

What is pattern? I used to think of it as something that occurs exclusively in the world at large, certain observable regularities in the environment that just happen to show up for us. But I've come to realize that pattern also occurs as a higher-level product of our mind. When we grasp pattern, we do something akin to grasping the part and the whole at the same time. Some sense of connectedness lights up in the visual centers of our brain, a flash of wholeness and unity. The experience is usually aesthetic and pleasurable — like an “Aha!”

Seeing patterns involves seeing your subjects as shapes and not objects.

Pattern is a phenomenon with few rules and endless variations, but these things hold true:

• Shapes are flat.

• The spaces between objects are also shapes.

• Everything locks together.

• There is a general sense of repetition, but not exact repetition.

Once, in an airport, I noticed a man with a shiny silk suit. Whenever he moved, even slightly, the light and dark shapes of his suit shifted and changed. I could see this like a map of changing territories, or a landscape in motion as viewed from a plane. It can be very helpful to create a map like this, some basic outline of the important shapes to guide you where you're going. When you draw with this perspective, you exercise a new kind of creative control. Distorting shapes is easier than distorting things — you have fewer preconceptions about how shapes are supposed to look. You can bend and stretch them at will.

SILK SUIT

SILK SUIT MAP

repetition with variation

A certain regularity, similarity or uniformity among parts is at the core of pattern sensing and creation. But absolute uniformity quickly bores us. We need the parts to be recognizably related but not exactly the same.

One way to capture this quality in a drawing is simply to observe it. Objects in nature, like the bean roots on this page, often exhibit similar, but not exact, shape regularities. Or you could draw a single object, like a toy truck or a pushpin, over and over from different angles. Also try drawing many different objects with uniform spacing between them. Here, it's the spacing that provides the regularity and sense of pattern.

ROOTS

I made this drawing of bean roots from a biology textbook. The pattern is enriched by a contrast of two kinds of forms: A the curving tendrils and the bean-shaped nodules.

PUSH PINS

This large piece (18″ × 24″ [46cm × 61cm]) was done in black, white and gray poster paint. I liked the variety of reflected shapes, especially the bright whites.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

For this kind of drawing, start with a single shape (I think I started with the archer), then fit new shapes around it, keeping the spaces between as uniform as possible.

BATTLE CHARGE

I started this drawing by copying the knight from a movie still. Once you get a template like this, the other drawings are just variations involving little alterations of angle, body posture and flowing cape.

CELL MACHINERY

This is a fantasy drawing of the inner workings of a cell. There are about seven different kinds of shapes, repeated in different positions.

MASS STRUGGLE

I like to draw seething, turbulent crowd scenes, mostly because of the interesting and varied patterns they make. In this one, the shapes are all merged together into a single, writhing mass.

interpreting nature

When you want to draw a patterned landscape, it's useful to ask yourself questions about the translation from eye to hand. Are the patterns linear or in aggregates? Are they rhythmic or chaotic? What stroke or strokes that will capture the feeling efficiently?

These questions are often answered by trial and error. As you begin to make marks, your hand generally takes over. Your stroke is a little algorithm, repeated many times with different variations.

Pattern is a bridge for transforming an observational drawing into something different and unexpected. Once you have found a way to express the character of your subject, ask yourself what you can do with it or what next creative step you might take. For such a transformation, you might do well to look, not at your subject, but at your drawing — you're more apt to see new possibilities. Perhaps you can do a spin-off piece where you intensify the stroke, use more pressure or employ a bolder tool. You might turn the work upside down and rework the scene into an abstract. You may see metaphorical possibilities: rocks that look like creatures or clouds, or the branched structure of a river that resembles the veins of a leaf or the back of a hand.

VOLCANIC ROCKS

I liked the texture of these rocks I saw on a beach.

CRAGGY

I drew these rocks with a fine textural stroke and black shadows. Then I turned the drawing and retraced it as two matching halves, below, left.

exercise 31
A Patterned Landscape
Observe a rocky subject and make several sketches. Pay particular attention to the type of stroke you use to capture the character of the rocks. Now, spin off: Choose one of your sketches and trace or redraw it to achieve a more dramatic result. Try one or more of the following:• Turn the drawing upside down or sideways.
• Make a mirror-image drawing.
• Choose a bolder drawing tool.
• Emphasize the metaphorical qualities. If your rock sketch resembles something else even a little, bring these qualities out in a new drawing.

PUZZLED

Bilateral symmetry usually suggests some kind of creature, but you never know just what you'll get with these mirror-image drawings. This one seems to have multiple faces, stacked vertically.

CRITTERS

I re-drew “Volcanic Rocks” (top of page) with slight modifications. To me, they look like fantasy animals with almost cartoonish features.

SERRATED MOUNTAIN

This drawing of the mountains of Montserrat was done with a crow quill pen and ink. The serrations were made by putting increased pressure on each stroke of the pen as it moved from left to right.

SURREAL FORMS

This drawing was made the same way, but with a chisel-point calligraphy pen. I turned the drawing upside down to add the black shadows.

WALNUT

I like drawing walnuts because they look so much like other things — brains, ruins, landscapes. After I drew this one, I noticed that the white recesses looked like water. I decided to retrace the drawing, darkening all but the water areas.

ISLAND IN THE STREAM

Here, the walnut is transformed into a strange landscape. As this drawing developed, I began adding little touches like foamy splashes, reflections and a horizon.

interpreting nature

Drawing nature requires a kind of shorthand; we need to find ways of working that summarize, and actually stand in for, the overwhelming layers of detail arrayed in front of us. Our strokes need to represent what we see, but in the most economical way.

We do this, as I have suggested, by shifting from drawing things to drawing patterns. Instead of asking “What kind of bark is that?”, ask “What are the rhythms here? How do the lines and shapes move, twist and flow?” Answer these sorts of questions not with your head, but with your hand and your kinesthetic sense. Your drawing is apt to become freer and more expressive. And when you choose to spin off or intensify, the fluidity of your strokes can often suggest the new direction.

Trees are a bounty to artists: They offer an endless feast of shape and pattern and can express youth, age, serenity, tenacity, majesty and just about anything else. Anytime you can't think of something to draw, there's always a tree.

These trees, from my sketchbooks, were all made with a conscious shift to drawing shape and pattern.

MIXED MEDIA

Most of the drawing below was done with a heavy black marker. But for the oak bark, I added some little ballpoint strokes.

JOSHUA TREE

This limb and its branches began to look very oriental to me. I made it into a shape study, adding ever-finer connected branches.

BIRCH AND OAK

When I observe a contrast, I tend to push it further in my drawing. Here, I liked the difference between the smooth birch and gnarled oak.

TRUNK

I liked the combination of rugged and softness in this subject. I used a fine tip marker for the bark shapes and black Conté crayon for the shadows. Before I added the shadows, I made little indentation lines in the paper with the end of a straightened paper clip. The Conté skipped over the indents, leaving white edges on some of the bark pieces.

MANMADE

The above drawing evolved from an accident. It rained while I was drawing, and some of the lines from the drawing at left bled onto the next page of my sketchbook. I had already drawn some bricks on the page, so I just continued the pattern over the entire tree.

SWIRLED

I began doing the bark on the tree at left in a straightforward way. But as I worked from left to right, the lines became more rhythmic and parallel. The far right portion of the trunk is pure decorative fantasy.

exercise 32
Textural Patterns
Repeat Exercise 31 using a tree trunk or branches as your subject. Make several sketches, emphasizing the character of the stroke. Then make a spin-off drawing that further emphasizes and strengthens the pattern. The spin-off need not look like a tree. Rather, it should embody more abstract qualities like boldness, vigor, rhythm and movement. Strive for a strong difference between the original sketch and the second drawing.

describing form with line

With practice, you can make linear drawings that fool the eye into believing that the image is three-dimensional. Besides being aesthetically interesting, this method of drawing will teach you a lot about form. In directing your line around countours and up and over bumps, you understand form at the neuromuscular level. This technique employs a couple of visual tricks:

1. Draw the lines so that they appear to curve around the object.

2. Make the lines wider apart in some areas and closer together in others.

VARY THE SPACING AND FOLLOW THE FORM

Watch the spacing variations — lines grow closer together as they travel over a bump or around a form. Also, draw lines so they appear to curve around the contours of an object.

CREATE THREE DIMENSIONS

The illusion of three-dimensional forms can be produced by undulating parallels which are sometimes apart, other times close together.

WORK IN PATCHES

Change the direction of your strokes for each separate patch.

AVOID USING OUTLINES

Although it may not look it, these intertwined forms were done entirely without outlines. The illusion is produced by the way the lines change direction or gather together at the edges.

PATTERNED GRASSHOPPER

I slipped the macro drawing from page 46 under a fresh sheet of paper and put them on a light table to make this piece. The diagram of the eye area shows how I changed the direction of the strokes for each little patch.

CRACKED NUT

Here's another example of working in patches, but in contrast to the relatively straight lines of the grasshopper, these lines are more undulating and rhythmic.

Finding the Unique in Conformity

There's a tendency to think of drawings like these — or any work employing a controlled technique — as rigidly mechanical, leaving little room for individual creativity. But you cannot help being yourself even when executing a rote algorithm, as evidenced by the drawings below.

exercise 33
Rhythmic Lines
1. Take one of your previous drawings and redraw it in rhythmic lines. Do not use outlines. Let your curving parallels describe the forms by bending around them. Your lines should converge near the edges and widen apart in the central regions.
2. Do a second rhythmic line drawing of an object, but do this one from direct obsevation.

Mixed Artichoke Reinhart Sonnenburg

Ruffled Artichoke Aya Itagaki

Wilted Artichoke Stephen Plume

Bud of Artichoke Joey Tate

Closed Artichoke Paul Rump

Double Artichoke Joan Waltermire

Open Artichoke Donald Helms

Thin Artichoke John G. Crane

RICKER WINSOR

A Strong Attack

Ricker Winsor took up drawing and painting at age thirty and never looked back. A dedicated naturalist and former photographer, Ricker had already trained himself to be a keen observer. But his approach to drawing is based not on realism, but rather on a bold expressionism with an emphasis on pattern. He has developed what he calls “a strong attack,” vigorously applying ink washes with large brushes and pens that he makes himself. He works large (generally 18″ × 24″ [46cm × 61cm] and larger) so that he can draw with his arm and shoulder rather than just the fingers and wrist.

Always seeking to capture the essence of things, Ricker works with laser-like intensity. Where others strive for fine detail and subtle shading, he looks for large masses and renders them with energetic strokes. The repeat-stroke brushwork in some of his work, especially his landscapes, looks like impressionist painting in black and white.

RICKER'S TOOLS

A brush, a palette of ink washes and a few pens, made from a reed called “phragmite.”

SELF-PORTRAIT

This drawing was done with ink and white poster paint. As well as a likeness, it's a study of light and dark. The shadow side of the face all but disappears into the background.

STILL LIFE WITH HOUSEPLANT

TURBULENT PATH

ARTICHOKES, RADISHES AND SQUASH

THE WOODS NEAR BRADFORD

Ricker uses a variety of bold strokes to convey trees, ground, mountains, etc.

VIEW FROM THE VERANDA, BIMINI, THE BAHAMAS

This interesting composition includes a “drawing of the drawing” in the lower left of the picture. The artist's palette is at lower right.

shape character

To acquire a sense of how shapes soften, curve, bend and taper, we observe with real care, taking our time. While our initial attempts at translation may be slow and painstaking, we are building a foundation. In time we “get” the character of the things we draw — not so much as a concept, but as a feeling. That's when things start to flow smoothly.

Motorcycles, with their tubular chrome and sweeping lines, seem to be made for shape studies. But it's the wealth of abstract, reflective detail that most attracts me.

Shape Play

In each of these drawings I took a small idea, like shiny surfaces or wobbly shapes, then pushed it to the extreme. This sometimes involved retracing, literally tearing and cutting apart the drawing, redrawing the shapes as geometric patterns or radically cropping to bring out the abstract qualities of the subject.

ULTRA SHINY

BYZANTINE

WATERY

SHATTERED

WOBBLY

merging shapes

Shapes describe things, but sometimes indirectly. Often an image that seems immediately recognizable is actually made up of surprisingly abstract shapes. Observed up close, the pieces are little shards and blobs, while at a distance they suddenly fuse into a distinguishable picture.

Shape mergers occur when two or more shapes of the same value blend together as a single image. The dancer's black leotard and the black doorway (right) have no separating boundary. In our mind's eye we have little trouble seeing them as distinct, but this visual ambiguity tends to flatten and unify the image. It activates our sense of design.

Consciously creating shape mergers helps you transition from drawing things to drawing shapes. And it helps you make pictures in which the parts all lock together into an integrated whole. This is a pretty good definition of design.

MERGED FIGURE & BACKGROUND

MERGED ATTIRE

MERGED SHADOWS

MERGED TEXTILE PATTERNS

MULTIPLE MERGERS

Here's a fine example of the beauty of merging complex shapes. In Robert Baxter's pencil landscape (above, left), he makes only the subtlest of distinctions among the tangled elements. In the wash drawing (above, right), he merges and simplifies even more, creating an almost abstract design.

THE MIND “FILLS IN” WHAT ISN'T THERE

At left is a detail from a drawing of an old movie still, showing how little information is needed to make a picture understood by the viewer. The full drawing is shown below.

exercise 34
Shape Mergers
1. Do a shape breakdown of a news photo using only black, white and two shades of gray. Merge shapes of the same or similar shade.
2. Set up a still life with a strong, single light source in an otherwise dark room. Make a drawing which emphasizes the pattern. Merge shapes of the same or similar shade (value). Make at least one of these mergers between an object and the background.

PANIC

The drawing above was made from a number of different news photos. I knitted the figures together by repeating a little algorithm that resembled folds of clothing. As you can see from the two details, the patterns are very abstract.

mapping and coloring

I am a strong believer in mapping — making a basic outline of important shapes to guide your drawing. I see it as an effective strategy for analyzing and clarifying what you observe. In fact, it is the best way I know to organize the design of your picture. Maps have unequivocal shapes; the boundaries are clear and distinct.

The reality we observe is not always so clear. Shadows, movement, dim light and other factors tend to fuzz and blur things. It takes imagination to override the ambiguities and map everything in your picture as a defined shape and then — as a further imaginative step — to assign a flat, bright color to each shape and fill it.

There are lots of ways of mapping and coloring. I generally like to keep the colors bright and flat with very little shading. Markers provide the brightest colors, but they sometimes seem a bit too acrid or concentrated, so I tone them down by adding colored pencil on top.

You can think of this work as akin to stained glass — work in which your lines are like the leaded mullions. They may or may not correspond to the outlines of the forms, as some of these examples demonstrate.

CIRCUS

I took my sketchbook to the circus, but due to the dim lighting and constant motion of the performers, it was impossible to draw with accuracy. But it didn't matter. I later traced the the crude images I made, above, combined them with some background shapes and colored them in, below, with bright watercolor, markers and colored pencils.

PURPLE SHADE

In spite of this title, I was seeing almost no color as I looked at my soft reflection in the screen of my darkened TV. I just drew the shapes and then added these bright colors arbitrarily.

HARLEQUIN

I drew this figure with no particular thought in mind. Sometime later — when I had partially colored it in — the idea of a jigsaw puzzle came to me. The color sometimes conforms to the shapes of the image and sometimes to the shapes of the jigsaw pieces.

exercise 35
Map and Color
1. Choose one of your previous drawings or doodles and retrace it as if it were a map. Enclose every shape and color them with bright and occasionally arbitrary colors.
2. Create a new and more complex map. This can be from a previous drawing. Add numerous enrichment shapes (i.e., smaller, interwoven shapes like jigsaw puzzle pieces or sections of a stained glass window). Color in the shapes with bright and occasionally arbitrary color.

PHOTOS TO FANTASY

These are two colored drawings by Ted Chaffee. Ted likes to work from photographs, but in the process of mapping and coloring, he transforms them to the point where they bear little resemblance to the original. Some become quite abstract. The little landscape above can be turned on either side and it still looks right side up.

escher tiling

The object of this technique is to make a drawing that has no background spaces; every shape is an object that fits into every other shape. I call this Escher tiling, after the Dutch artist M.C. Escher who created complex and beautiful variations on this theme.

My version is less profound than his was. I simply draw an object, usually from imagination, and then see what other object, person or animal might fit snugly against it. In this way, I build my drawing one shape at a time.

1 Draw an object, then study the negative shapes around it. Look for a fit with another object.

2 Draw a second object (the man's head) so that it exactly fits the adjacent space. Continue with a third object.

3 Keep doing this for as long as you have the energy or room on your paper.

DUCK AND PIG

COFFEE AND CAR

THE TIME OF ELEPHANTS AND POLAR BEARS

ANYTHING GOES

This kind of work is just a fancy form of doodling and should be treated with the same irreverence. I like to mix styles, combining cartoonish figures with semi-realistic ones, as I did with Connected People (at right). And I'm not a purist about the rules. Every so often, when I can't see a fit, I make one object go behind anodther. I did this with the upside-down kid in the t-shirt, below in School Dreams.

CONNECTED PEOPLE

SCHOOL DREAMS

SLIGHTLY SHADED

NATURAL HARMONY

I started the drawing below with a sketch of a giraffe at the zoo. The two large heads were done from photographs, and the rest was made up.

ZELMA LOSEKE

Weaving a Drawing

Some of the most original work comes from self-taught artists. Zelma Loseke wove her first basket when she was making a doll's cradle for her young daughter. This moment inspired her to try larger sculptural pieces in willow using a technique that she developed herself. Today she is a well-established basket maker.

When she turned to drawing, Zelma brought a weaver's sensibility along with her. Using ballpoint pen lines instead of willow branches, she patiently builds up images with a regular repeated stroke. Just as with her baskets, she begins with no preconceived idea of how the piece will turn out — she simply draws lines until certain shapes begin to emerge. When this happens, she reinforces the shapes and builds variations of them.