140
WILLOW CHARCOAL
Willow charcoal is a very good medium for
producing strong but fluid line drawings.
When we are using line, we must have a clear
view of our aims and objectives. This is true
of any type of drawing, of course, but line
does offer so many different ways for us to
express our ideas. One of the most enigmatic
things about line is that it is a pure metaphor
(a metaphor is something that acts for
something else). Artists who paint reference
colour, and artists who sculpt reference form
or shape. Line is a pure visual language that
we can use either expressively or analytically
relative to our observations.
1/4In figure 1 you can see that two lines have
been drawn opposite each other. Taken
together, these two lines give the impression
of a concaved shape. When this type of line is
used to describe reality, as in figure 4, it
becomes apparent that, although you have
drawn or copied what you have seen, the end
result does not necessarily describe what is
there.
2/5Here again we have the same problem,
one line that implies a concave and the other
line implying a convex. When we apply this to
reality, or we draw what we see (as in figure
5), we sense that the illusion is not working.
3/6In figure 3 we see two lines that imply
convex edges of a form. These two lines
working opposite each other now begin to
imply the illusion of an ovoid form that is
pushing them out. If you now look at figure
6, you can see that the area of the neck has a
sense of form and volume. This is due to the
use of convex lines that work in tandem with
each other.
7/8These two further comparisons highlight
this phenomenon. Figure 7 is a drawing of a
head and torso drawn very literally, as we
might see it. In other words, we have drawn
the truth. However, ‘art is a lie that enables us
to see the truth’, said Picasso. The dotted
lines highlight the concave areas on the
figure, and if drawn in a concave way the
sense of volume is denied.
In figure 8 we see the same figure in the
same pose but drawn with lines that are
convex. These lines break into the figure,
creating the idea of overlap. This system of
drawing gives an illusion of form and volume
in space. This is very much how artists such as
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Rubens, and others
would use line as a metaphor to create the
illusion of form and volume in space.SUPERFICIAL MUSCLE
This drawing of the whole figure (see page
142) goes much further than the pure outline
of the previous illustrations.
In the previous illustrations, the form is
only suggested by the convex outlines, but in
this drawing the superficial muscle - i.e. the
muscle that lies just below the surface of the
skin – is not only implied but also drawn
much more conclusively.
In the next illustration (see page 142) we
can see that the artist Egon Schiele has used
the line to express the opposite effect to that
of frailty and fragility. He has done this by
putting less of an emphasis on the convex and
more of an emphasis on the concave lines. We
can immediately see that the form in these
circumstances tends to be denied. This,
however, does not make one drawing better
than the other. Both are expressions of whatWillow charcoal – projects