THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE

THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE 25

stephen Farthing

Most maps sit quite happily on the Conceptual
side of drawing. During their formative stages they
will be to some degree Speculative. In their final
version however, the expectation of the audience is
that they should be accurate, Definitive and disin-
terestedly Descriptive.
A portrait of Jane Austenvi cut as a profile into
black paper with a pair of scissors is Pictorial. It
is Descriptive of her appearance and, in so far as
it conditions our view of what she actually looked
like, it is Defining. As a cut tonal drawing it is Pic-
torial, Descriptive and Definitive.
The measured line drawing that is the football
pitch is Conceptual, in that it functions in conjunc-
tion with a narrative – the rules of the game. Each
sports field drawing Defines the area of play; it
Instructs the players. It doesn’t passively describe.
So the drawn sports field is Conceptual, Definitive
and Instructive
A circle drawn freehand is Conceptual. Its shape
may be Speculative, but if it is reasonably accu-
rate it remains Descriptive. A circle drawn with a
compass is also Conceptual. If accurately drawn it
becomes Definitive and Descriptive.
The gender-based icon on a toilet door is Picto-
rial, Defining and Instructive. A landscape drawn
by the English Landscape painter JMW Turner is
always Pictorial, always Descriptive, but some-
times Definitive, other times Speculative.

To conclude
On one side there is the pictorial route that is
concerned with the external appearance of things,
on the other the conceptual that is dependent on
us constructing images by joining up the dots we
deem important, not simply the ones that prefigure
an outline. The cut I make through the middle of
drawing doesn’t just enable a classification system,
it also helps us picture drawing as an intellectually
and emotionally driven compendium of possibili-
ties, not simply a craft subject attached to the past
by the life room and the future by digital modelling.

References

i The Codex Chantilly is held at the library of
the Musée Condé at the Chateau de Chantilly
as manuscript 564 (older sources refer to it as
‘1047.’)

ii The Narrow Path to Zion, Emily Babcock, New

Lebanon, New York public library, Special Col-

lections, Drawing on 8 sheets ,ink on paper, 4 by

13 inches.

iii Drawing of a Pineapple, John White 1580’s , Brit-

ish Museum (BM 1906.0509.1.41)

iv Drawing by John Webber during Cooks 3rd voy-

age 1776-1780. King Penguin aptenodytes pa-

tagonica Watercolour, over graphite 25.8 x16.1

cm, British Museum, AN389988001 acquired

1914 Previous owner/ex-collection Sir Joseph

Banks

v The duck-rabbit image was “originally noted” by

American psychologist Joseph Jastrow in 1899,

Jastrow’s drawing was based on one originally

published in Harper’s Weekly (Nov. 19, 1892, p.

1114) which, in turn, was based on an earlier il-

lustration in Fliegende Blätter, (Oct. 23, 1892, p.

147).

vi Silhouette 4 x 3 inches c. 1810-1815 from the

second edition of “Mansfield Park’’ inscribed

“L’aimable Jane’’ and presumed to be of Jane Aus-

ten, attributed to a Mrs. Collins who worked in

Bath during the early 1800’s.