THE THINKING EYE
Techniques and materials are the grammar and vocabulary
of drawing and can be studied and shared. An artist's
personal voice is something that also evolves through
lessons learned. However, it is this voice that is the subtle
part of their art and something that ultimately, when they
are more experienced, comes from within. Imagination
needs nourishment. It rarely flourishes in isolation. As you
draw, seek ideas in the life around you. Look to your own
experience and also learn from the work of others.
Drawing is a living language that over millennia has
grown and changed, adapting its form and occupation, and
enfolding new media. The chapters of this book present
90 different artists' ways of seeing, and many more reasons
for drawing the world. To these I have added my own
drawings to explain elementary materials and techniques
and offer introductory approaches. Note that the drawing
classes are allocated to subjects, but not confined to them.
In the total wealth of these pages, we still only glimpse a
corner of the magnitude of this subject and the infinity of
what can be achieved. This practical journey will take you
through the door into the vivid heart of drawing. Once
there, the path is yours. The real drawing book has yet to
come; it will be your creation as you discover your own
personal vision.
AN ARTIST'S HANDS
These are the hands of the artist Phyll Kiggell
(see p. 150).Their elegant strength seems to
summon a lifetime of drawing, and became a
great subject for me. I was particularly attracted
to their gentle articulation and understated
determination, caught between action and repose.ELECTRIC BULL
With a penlight, Picasso has just finished
his drawing, which is held frozen in space
by a camera lens. Its sensuous and
flowing line seems to drift like smoke, three-
dimensionally. Picasso is poised smiling,
staring straight through his image of a bull,
which of course he cannot see.INTRODUCTION
Picasso Painting with Light at
the Madoura Pottery
1949