drawing

Self portrait of me about 1990.
All done with mirrors, No, really, two mirrors at 90 degrees or so, what ever it takes to get the right view, double advantage is I come out the right way around and you get to see a person you never saw before.

Try it. So that's me sitting in a chair concentrating on myself trying to record the good bad and the ugly, takes a determined spirit to stick with it, but after a while it just becomes an interesting model with all the technical problems of how to put this on paper.

I actually like this face better but it did come out a little longer then it is, so use good mirrors, mine were cheap.

Q.Some one may say why use a mirror? why not use a photo?

A.Well I will answer that with a question. If you had a photo why would you then want to draw it??? ME can not be captured in a photo which snatches a 1/125 th of a second. I am much more then that instance. My drawing is a collection of ME over 45 minutes or so, that's 2,700 seconds, that me is the one you will recognise should you meet me passing on the street. But not the idiot happy Kodak moment, that's nothing more then a glimpse of me passing from one expression to the next. I talk about me because that's the subject but the principal is the same for any subject.

What do I think drawing is?
Well it is never about clever lines, good lines yes but never clever. It should be as personal as it gets, the viewer has totally nothing to do with it, even if he is paying.

What else is it? It is a graphic record of a creative process good and bad. Drawing is.

You hate a particular piece or you love it. You never change it to please another. My advice is if they want it different, give them a pencil and a fresh piece of paper and they can draw what they like.

Note when designing for a commercial project there is a difference in that the artist works with a group so there will be a compromise, just how much of a compromise is up to the client. The greater the compromise the less art he is getting, too much compromise usually results in no art at all but just another annoyingly bad advert or commercial. No disrespect intended but the client must realise at the start that he commissions the artist because he likes his work. The artist after all is the professional that will produce the best work for the occasion.

Two results of changing the art to what ever the client thinks (he does not know but he has seen something somewhere) would improve the end product. Again no disrespect but most clients have little idea of what they need. When the artist agrees to change it to make it the way the client wished two things happen. The client is never happy with their own idea so when they see it they do not like it. And the client's respect for the artist's work as a professional goes down the tube, because one: he does not like it (Client dislikes his own idea), two: the artist is a professional so why did he stuff it up (why is obvious, The artist compromised to please the client who can not be pleased with his own half baked idea).

Solution: the artist should always talk it out very extensively with the client before he draws anything, once they both think on the same track start the work. Note to client, it is in your best interest not to compromise the work too much once in progress as with all the best intentions on the part of the artist it is unavoidable, you will end up with less art, (there is only one driving seat).

Mario Donk

Don't think your going to nail me down on a style.
Style does not a good artist make.
It is and should be an evolving thing.

People sometimes say they like a particular style. What does that really mean? It goes with the lounge chairs? Or other work?
Very subtle style develops but it should have entirely no influence on the work being created at the time. It totally depends on the work at hand, you give it what it needs.

If , as some do, you paint only in one style you are no longer seeing your subject as it really is and seeing it through extremely coloured glasses.
And as art is largely the search for truth at all it's levels you would as artist be doing yourself and those around you a considerable disservice by wearing these untruthful glasses and refusing to see things a fresh.

Mario Donk.

This is an early rough to get an idea going, I then played with printing inks on glass and made marks on that and made some mono prints, then I developed the etching of the tug

Note I use drawing however it suits me, I rarely see it as an end in itself so I am not too concerned with the line here.
But in the figure drawing I made (see right) ...I am concerned with the line because an inaccurate drawing would destroy what beauty there was in the form.
Was she part of a group then yes, you might rough out a placement rough as rough as the tug.

You might also note that the final etching is not at all that different from the look, feel, and proportions of my first rough as you may have thought.

If ever you should find a polished drawing in here you might think yourself lucky but personally I think you'll learn less from it. It seems to be the trend these days to show very high finish drawings with no honest sign of how the artist ever arrived at such a look as if it was the first attempt (which it never is) I think they think it looks professional.

Interesting point though, you can look at the works (drawings) of Rembrandt, Rubens, Durer and lets pick a recent and living artist Andrew Wyeth ( I am very sad to hear that Andrew Wyeth died this January 2009). His work continues to inspire. You see that all their work is alive ,fresh, very messy at times with no attempt to hide a mistake but simply redrew the lines that need correcting. It is about an idea, a feeling, it is not about impressing the general uninformed public with slick style.

Drawn with my eyes closed
I think there is something not quite right with it's back legs but I like it none the less.
Keep in mind that this drawing was done from start to finish with my eyes closed.
Drawn with my favourite fountain pen.It is a music pen, it has two splits going to the point, not just one so this make it more flexible but also more fragile. Never loan your pen to anyone, not even for a second, it takes less then that to ruin it for you, give them a pencil or one of those horrible biro's but never your pen. I draw what I see in my mind as quickly as humanly possible because the image is not particularly stable and is likely to run away at a great rate. It is a very easy way to capture your idea without getting feed back from the marks you make so it is as pure as your likely to get. Later you can re draw if need be, I could have but didn't feel like it as it had a lot I liked , even if the back feet are a little in question.
Some days this works better then others. The main problem is moving your pen far enough and in proportion to your brain so it all joins up. What usually tends to happen is that you draw over the other lines, but even then you can still retrieve some of the original idea as a new starting point.