(Fogra 29) Job:11-41057 Title:Drawing club Handbook
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001-144_41057.indd 25 24/4/14 6:45 pm24 The Drawing Club(Text)
Chapter 2: Why Is 2-D Design So Important?
Good design usually starts in two dimensions. Just look at the
silhouette of a Ferrari, for instance, or how the outline of a lamp
makes it look modern, elegant, or 100 years old. They started
with a flat plane and a sketch.
Some of the best drawers have a real knack for this type of
translation. I used to marvel at how a school friend of mine was
able to place a figure on the page in the perfect spot to make the
whole piece of paper a designed space. If you moved the figure a
fraction of an inch one way or another, it would ruin the design.Egon Scheile drawing of Gustav KlimtAmazing! How did she get so good at this? Turns out she
worked at a library where she had a lot of downtime. During a
lull, she would look around at the people there and draw on the
library scrap paper that was cut into uneven shapes. She would
observe people and draw one person on each piece of scrap
paper.
She found herself practicing designing for the page, looking for
how two-dimensional shapes created by the body language, ’80s
clothing, and hairstyles made a design on the page.
As time went on, you could see her adjusting the figure to
make a better design in the compositional space created by the
piece of scrap paper. Sometimes, the arm would get a little bit
longer or the gesture of the neck would be exaggerated. Other
times, she would make someone look funny in how she designed
the shapes in her drawing. The paper was always a different
size. This made each drawing unique and seemed to celebrate
the moment.
Years later, I went to an exhibit of Egon Schiele drawings.
I always loved Schiele’s artwork, but it wasn’t until I saw his
original drawings in person that I made the connection that he
was designing his figures to fit the page. Each drawing was done
on a piece of paper that was a different size and proportion. It
was like an individual conversation with each piece of paper.
Not just technique—brilliant design!A drawing is a translation of our thoughts and observations
from our three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional
plane. Translating objects into two dimensions allows us to
quickly and directly communicate with each other in a universal
language. It’s as age old as prehistoric cave paintings.
Pre-Raphaelite, ink and wash on paper, John Quinn(Fogra 29) Job:11-41057 Title:Drawing club Handbook
#175 Dtp:204 Page:24001-144_41057 2.indd 24 24/4/14 7:28 pm
25(Text)
Egon Scheile drawing of Gustav KlimtAmazing! How did she get so good at this? Turns out she
worked at a library where she had a lot of downtime. During a
lull, she would look around at the people there and draw on the
library scrap paper that was cut into uneven shapes. She would
observe people and draw one person on each piece of scrap
paper.
She found herself practicing designing for the page, looking for
how two-dimensional shapes created by the body language, ’80s
clothing, and hairstyles made a design on the page.
As time went on, you could see her adjusting the figure to
make a better design in the compositional space created by the
piece of scrap paper. Sometimes, the arm would get a little bit
longer or the gesture of the neck would be exaggerated. Other
times, she would make someone look funny in how she designed
the shapes in her drawing. The paper was always a different
size. This made each drawing unique and seemed to celebrate
the moment.
Years later, I went to an exhibit of Egon Schiele drawings.
I always loved Schiele’s artwork, but it wasn’t until I saw his
original drawings in person that I made the connection that he
was designing his figures to fit the page. Each drawing was done
on a piece of paper that was a different size and proportion. It
was like an individual conversation with each piece of paper.
Not just technique—brilliant design!A drawing is a translation of our thoughts and observations
from our three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional
plane. Translating objects into two dimensions allows us to
quickly and directly communicate with each other in a universal
language. It’s as age old as prehistoric cave paintings.
(Fogra 29) Job:11-41057 Title:Drawing club Handbook
#175 Dtp:204 Page:25001-144_41057 2.indd 25 24/4/14 7:28 pm