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.

Robert Fawcett - Draftsman Extrordinaire

I received the book "Robert Fawcett - The Illustrator's Illustrator" for Christmas this year and boy is it a beauty. With insightful text by illustration aficionado and intellectual property lawyer David Apatoff, this book comes to life with hundreds of eye popping images by Fawcett.

I was aware of Fawcett's work from my history of illustration classes, but this book brings a whole new appreciation for the quality and draftsmanship that Fawcett produced. Born near London in 1903, his family moved to Winnepeg , Canada while he was a young boy. Popular magazine illustrations by the likes of Howard Pyle and N.C.Wyeth sparked young Robert's interest in picture making.

Fawcett was largely self taught, spending only two years of formal art training at the Slade School of Art in London. This volume documents his rise to the top if the American illustration ranks after abandoning a short career as a "fine artist". Apparently not being able to stomach the "commercial side of fine art", he determined to earn a living doing "honest commercial work".

Fawcett felt there really was no line between fine art and commercial work insisting that an illustrator was just as capable of creating quality work as a gallery painter was of creating mediocre work. As far as his own work was concerned, Fawcet said, "everything I do is fine art".

Opinionated and often brash, Fawcett commanded top prices at the height of his career that stretched from his return to the United States in 1924 until his death in 1967. Though he never took a course on human anatomy, It would be difficult to argue that there has ever been an illustrator with stronger skills in draftsmanship and narrative composition than Fawcett.

This book showcases all of his formidable skill in stunning fashion.Particularly of interest in the book are some of the sidebar details that describe Fawcett's style and working methods as well as a reprint of a Famous Artist Magazine interview with Fawcett from 1960.

Anyone with an affinity for great drawing and gorgeous mid-century illustration will want to pick up this volume. Also check out the other great art and illustration books from Auad Publishing at the link below.

Auad Publishing's website
Another post on Fawcett by David Apatoff on Today's Inspiration