LIFE DRAWINGS, part 5

In recent weeks, we've looked at different approaches to figure drawing, and discussed how different artists can use the same human form as a vehicle for wrestling with very different types of issues of both form and content.

In earlier days when illustrators were classically trained in anatomy, figure drawing seems to have been a far more literal educational process.  Here are some figure studies by illustrator E. F. Ward who was in George Bridgman's anatomy class (along with Norman Rockwell.)

The class sometimes drew figures in costume:

There has been a great deal of talk about artists revealing subliminal truth and the narrative fallacy in theor life drawing, but fromwhat I've read, Bridgman would have no patience or sympathy for such theories.  He expected that the purpose of these studies was to learn anatomy.

LIFE DRAWINGS, part 4

 I've previously written about the great Australian illustrator and war artist, Ivor Hele.

A veteran of many bloody battles, Hele's figure studies frequently turned out to be "death" drawings rather than life drawings.  

However, when he returned home to his wife Jean,  Hele drew her in all sorts of domestic situations (some are NSFW):

Putting on her stockings in the morning:

Reading a book:

Reading a book wearing nothing but shoes and socks:

Sleeping:

Hele was unambiguous about his interests:

                                                          

But those interests never eroded his high standards or stopped him from excellent figure drawiung.

LIFE DRAWINGS, part 3

 Not every artist can afford to hire professional models to pose on a model stand in a spacious studio. 

Living in a small apartment, sharing space with relatives (particularly during years of war rationing) artists may still feel the same burning need to record life, and still respond to that need with insightful, excellent drawings. 

I admire the work of English illustrator Raymond Sheppard (1913-1958) who justly earned fame for his illustrations of animals.  He did much of his professional work at the zoo, but when the zoo was closed Sheppard drew his family at home, reading, knitting, napping or even posing.

Sheppard used these life drawings to create genuine challenges for himself.  Note how he draws these family members from difficult angles, testing his powers of observation. 

Unlike professional models, children don't always sit still, so Sheppard had to be prepared to capture his subject quickly:

Sheppard paid a high price for these drawings; he was diagnosed with cancer at age 33 and spent much of his remaining years in pain.  Yet, rather than languish he found it meaningful to devote the rest of his life to making careful, patient drawings such as these life drawings.

Sheppard's self portrait

LIFE DRAWING, part 2

At the height of his career, illustrator Robert Fawcett continued to practice drawing from the model every week.  

He'd have a model come to his studio and at the end of every session he'd lift the lid on the model platform and toss in his drawings for the day.  When he died, there were hundreds and hundreds of life drawings which his widow handed out to his friends and admirers. 

This is a life drawing from Fawcett's days as a teenage student at the Slade School in London, complete with comments from his instructor.  

Here is a sampling of drawings from Fawcett's model platform:

Detail

Detail

Fawcett's familiarity with the human form helped him block out figures in preliminary layouts for illustrations:

While a student at the Slade School, Fawcett used to complain bitterly about their incessant focus on drawing from the model. Thirty years later, at the top of his profession, he saw new value in the process.

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Post script: Fawcett had disdain for artists who spent their time "noodling and polishing simple figure studies."  He said that such studies "might now be blinding in their degree of finish, dazzling in their virtuosity, but we ourselves would be neatly trapped in that comfortable corner from which so many students fail to find the exit."  The following two studies (one version in charcoal, the other in ink) were done for propaedeutic purposes but the third study, more purposeful and strong, seemed closer to Fawcett's natural preferences. 

LIFE DRAWINGS, part 1

 

A large percentage of fine drawings by illustrators never see the light of day.  

Professional illustrators, many at the very peak of their profession and working under tight deadlines for other assignments, continued to set aside time for figure studies from the model.  These were solely for the personal benefit of the artist, who felt they were important for continued artistic growth. 

Often piles of drawings were stashed in boxes or discarded.  When the artist passed away, many of these drawings were left behind in their studios.  But I think these studies deserve a wider audience.  

Today's installment is sensitive life drawings by the talented Daniel Schwartz.