Robert Fawcett on Drawing

Defeat and Death on Battan by Robert Fawcett

When asked in a 1960 Famous Artist Magazine interview how important drawing was to the total result of a picture, Robert Fawcett replied with the following quote:

Drawing constitutes the fountainhead and substance of painting and sculpture and architecture...Let him who has attained the possession of this be assured that he possesses a great treasure.
-Michelangelo

After my last post, I realized there was much more to share from the book Robert Fawcett- The Illustrator's Illustrator (which I highly recommend by the way).  I figured I'd post a little more today. The following is a breakdown of Fawcett's drawing style and mark making along with a few quotes from the above noted interview.

Q:What is the use of a picture anyway?

A: What use is a Beethoven symphony? To feed the spirit, to feed the soul.

Q: Do you believe artists should be trained?

A: They must pursue constant and relentless drawing. Being able to draw only comes about by drawing. Of course training will give the artist hints. But in the last analysis, the artist develops himself.

Q: Must an artist have talent?

A: I do not think that artists are naturally born...Sweat and application will develop the artist. An artist who wants badly enough to do it will do it anyway. It will be impossible to dissuade him. If students want to be spoon fed, this is not likely to be a real desire on their part to be artists, but merely a whim.

Q: What do you hope to communicate to those who see your work?

A: I would like them so see a sense of positive organization in my picture. If you see a picture that is well organized you have no trouble looking at it. This is the logical outcome of drawing. Drawing is seeing. And what we do is create a kind of order in a picture that makes it easy for people to look at.

On the art of seeing:

I'm just a built in eye. I can see with such clarity. But the hand always falters between the eye and the paper. ...You can learn to see by seeing....If I have a trained eye, I will record a more comprehensive picture because I know how to translate what I see. there should be the least amount of interference between the eye, the brain and the hand. When you have exhausted conventional seeing, you can go into more interesting things.

Q: What is the best advice you can give an aspiring illustrator?

A: If you want to be an artist, you will be an artist. If you do not become one, there is nobody to blame but yourself. The techniques can be learned and should be learned thoroughly. Then comes the relentless application of your knowledge.

Many thanks to Manuel Auad of Auad Publishing for his gracious permission to share these pictures and excerpts.

Leonardo's Lost Princess?

This week I saw a PBS documentary about a beautiful ink and chalk drawing that some believe could be a long lost work by Leonardo da Vinci. The work, now titled "La Bella Principessa" was rediscovered in 1988, and was assumed to be the work of a 19th century German artist. The hour long program laid out compelling arguments that this drawing may indeed be a long lost Leonardo including, the evident skill of the artist, location and carbon dating.

Not the least of these arguments was the fact that stroke angle is consistent with a drawing done by a left handed artist, which Leonardo also was. Notice how the pen strokes angle down toward the right, typical of a left handed artist. These same angled strokes are evident in the "princess".

Every artist leaves his unique hand print on their work and careful study can reveal stylistic tendencies that can be identified and tracked from painting to painting. Drawing style is one of these things that, like an individual's handwriting, can be matched and verified. The highly crafted nature of the work, the sensitivity to drawing and the delicate nature of the woman's features echo other Leonardo works as well. Though the documentary ended with no conclusive verdict on whether this is indeed a Leonardo, to my eye it appears to be such.

Read more on La Bella Principessa here.