1.
Preconceptions
The projects in this section involve going into the landscape to make several quick drawings in a sketchbook, using a number of broad-based but mainly gestural techniques. By the end you should have developed confidence in approaching landscape drawing and feel happy about working outdoors, which can be difficult and intimidating for a beginner. The projects should also help you to respond quickly to the environment and enable you to draw, without fear or constraint, in a number of different ways that express your feelings and responses.
The projects have certain conditions attached to them. Some are very quick, with precise times. Others have very specific instructions, such as using both hands. You should comply with these conditions even if they feel strange or restrictive because, as well as trying to break down preconceptions about drawing, the aim of these procedures is to undermine any notions you may have about landscape.
The first seven projects involve gestural drawings, and the attitude that you adopt is crucial to success. A gestural drawing is an action statement. You should allow your eye to scan your field of vision, seeking the primary objects in that field and their positions in relation to each other. In other words, you should draw the scene simultaneously with seeing it. It is a fusion of observation and drawing, done quickly, and placing the whole landscape down almost at once. Imagine you have never drawn before and know nothing about it.
MATERIALS
For all the projects in this section you need an 81/2- x 11-in hardback sketchbook, 3B or 4B pencils or graphite sticks, erasers, a pencil sharpener, a watch or clock, something dry to sit on, suitable clothing for the weather, and food and drinks if appropriate.
Project One
HAND-EYE RELIANCE
Three five-minute drawings
The aims of this project are to prevent you from copying what you see and to help you accept your drawing as an expression or metaphor for what you see. A general misconception is that visual artists should be able to draw “properly,” in the sense of reproducing or making an exact likeness of what they see. This attitude puts a lot of pressure on beginners. In other art forms, artists are applauded for using metaphor. When William Wordsworth wrote “The Daffodils,” he used metaphor to express his feelings.
I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils.
The poet could have written: “I am walking in the hills. I am alone. I have just seen a field with approximately 4,000 daffodils in it,” and so on. Instead, he chose to use metaphor to describe his experiences and feelings. Unless they are recording something for a specific reason, visual artists do not need to be literal.
Using pencil or graphite sticks, make three five-minute drawings. You should be looking at the landscape continuously during this period of drawing, not at your drawing. If your pencil is moving, you should be looking at the subject. You can look at your drawing a couple of times while you work, but not while your pencil is on the paper. This approach should give you a sense of hand-eye coordination, just like when you hit a ball with a bat.
Project Two
GESTURE
Three five-minute drawings
Using pencil or graphite sticks, do three five-minute drawings. Fill the page with each drawing. You need to approach this project with confidence. Imagine your hand is an extension of your eye. Don’t concentrate on detail. Let your pencil line swing from the top to the bottom of the composition, and from side to side, until the landscape is drawn. You are creating an artificial statement for what you see, in this case with gesture. Remember that your drawing is a metaphor for the real world.
Project Three
PLANAL RECESSION
One thirty-minute to one-hour drawing
Planal recession means creating the illusion of different planes (like flat sheets of card) overlapping each other and appearing to go back in space.
You could use a silhouette drawing as a starting-point for this project because you have already created planal recession through the use of the overlap. The aim here is to emphasize recession by using tone.
Do not look at your drawing while drawing.
First, make the foreground area a very dark tone. Then make the middle ground area a slightly lighter tone, and the background area a very light tone. This will help the illusion of space and depth. You can leave the sky white or make it dark from the horizon line to the top of the paper, or the reverse.
Play with the tone combinations to see how they affect the idea of depth and space.
