A Helping Hand is Better than a Giving Tree
Hello Fellow Arters and welcome back to Draw Daily!
Welcome to the Third installment of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. A series where I am going to be going through the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, breaking down the exercises, and explaining how they can be useful.
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DRAWING “MY HAND”
It is known that drawing from life can be much more beneficial than working from a photograph. Real life, as it goes on in front of our eyes, has wonderful depth and beauty; and not just in the 3D sense, but as well as how color and light interact, even how these things can make you think or feel. Photography - however useful - flattens what it ‘sees’ with its lens into a 2D image, and it does so with a very limited eye.
So when Dr. Betty Edwards sends us off on the next part of the exercise, we should keep this in mind.
EXERCISE ONE PART THREE
This section is quite sparse on instruction and explanation. It sort of dances around the point and then leaps into the next chapter. What she does explain is that you are to do a drawing of your own hand. If you are right handed, you can use your left as a reference. Otherwise, you can do the opposite.
Edwards requests that you complete the exercise before you move on to what remains in this chapter, and, in following her lead, if you are going to be completing the exercise, do it now before you read on from here!
DO THE EXERCISE NOW
My Thoughts
This exercise is a follow up to the previous one where we discussed drawing a face from memory. However, this time we are exploring how it feels to draw when we actually use reference.
Drawing from life is the most natural, dynamic, and reliable source for reference and study. You have the ability and opportunity to interact with the environment, walk around or view the subject from various angles, move or manipulate it to better understand it and how it functions as a shape. Be it a simple cylinder, or, in this case, your own hand - you have the opportunity to explore the reference and how the different parts are attached to one another and how they interact in space.
That being said, for most of us it isn’t very convenient to either try and rely on other people to help you get the right pose, or have a certain piece of clothing, or a certain color light, or exactly the right object… and with the internet and people literally walking around with a camera in their pocket - many of us end up using photography in some fashion for reference.
Although there are limitations, photography ends up being our most convenient tool and resource. So while being able to draw something in person is always going to be best way - in our modern world - you can get away with primarily using photography, or other artists work for reference.
At this point, now that you have done your assignment, Edwards takes a quick moment to tell us to sign and date our work once it is complete. This is something she mentions a few times, but I made the choice to hold that back until now. So, if you haven’t yet, it would be a good idea to sign, date, and even comment on “The Self Portrait”, “Drawing from Memory” and now “My Hand”, if you have anything you would like to jot down.
Signing is important and any good artist will tell you that you always, always sign your work. It gives you ownership over the piece, and shows that the piece is complete; dating allows you to track your own progress over time; and if you are feeling particularly verbose, you can even leave notes on the drawing mentioning your thoughts, feelings, or even the insights you made while creating it. Keeping track of these things over time weaves a creative journal and notes can help you recall the distance you’ve traveled. History tends to distort and sometimes all the hard work and effort can be easily forgotten ten, twenty, or even fifty years down the line. Future you will thank now you.
THE HISTORY OF THE SIGNATURE
The first known usage of the hand written signature can be traced back as far as Ancient Rome which, as we know, was a rich and cultured civilization holding technology, education, and art in high esteem. However, as Rome toppled and the world fell into the Dark Ages, many advances made by the ancient peoples had been lost, and the importance and personal significance of the signature in everyday life crumbled. Although the creation of art, both in cultural and historical importance never faltered, the view through which it was created and consumed had greatly changed.
It was around this time that Christianity became a major focus for most people, and how and why artwork was created usually served a religious purpose. Meaning the artwork created during this time depicted religious stories, symbols, and moments of historical and religious significance. So when an artist spent hours, days, weeks, months, or even years painting and depicting the death of Jesus, for example, throwing in a signature belittled the moral significance of that moment. It could even be argued that it was prideful or greedy to sign your name, which, notably, are traits that are synonymous with sin during this time.
Another reason that artists didn’t sign their work was because guilds were the main feature of any skill-based trade, much like unions of today, you would have education or qualifications of some sort. These guilds provided customers with peace of mind that, not only would the work be of quality, but also competitively priced. So, much like a plumber or contractor - the focus was on the work produced by the group as a whole and not the skills of a particular individual.
It’s not until the start of the Renaissance in the 1300’s that people started to appreciate the individual again. Those who were particularly talented started to sign their artwork so that their genius could be appreciated, so to speak.
To this day signatures persist and their addition can bring great value to an otherwise mundane object. For artists a signature can bring an even greater value to an artwork as a famous name can bring value to even a simple sketch. The same landscape could be bought on a postcard for a dollar, but an original Monet can be worth millions of dollars - as long as you can prove that Monet painted it. The best way to track a painting’s provenance, or an artwork’s documented history, is going to start with the evidence of a legitimate signature.
This has prevailed through to this day, 700 years later. We see a certain name scribed in the corner of a portrait, landscape or interpretation and can equate value to that name. Although today’s world seems more than saturated with artists - so who are you versus another 100 people just like you - that doesn’t take away from the fact that, the reason there are so many artists is because of the high value we place on art and just how much time the average person spends on decorating their home, watching social media, or consuming TV, movies, and video games. Art continues to have a huge influence on us culturally, socially, religiously, and any other ‘ly’ you can think of. Your signature reminds us, the consumer, that there was a hand that penned it, and you should take pride in that.
“Your signature, does more than identify you. It also expresses you and your individuality, your creativity. Your signature is true to yourself, and in this sense, you already speak the nonverbal language of art: You using the basic element of drawing, line, in an expressive way, unique to yourself.“
~Betty Edwards (Page numbers vary depending on which addition you read, and what device you read it on. )
COMPARING THE DRAWINGS
After completing the three parts of this exercise, Edwards wants you to lay out your three drawings in front of you and take a close look at them. Notice the areas that are done well, where you were able to observe carefully and you drew something that looked good.
Some people may only see something that could be described as childish, or amateurish. Edwards wants to remind you that you made these drawings before you had any instruction. Others may find themselves happily surprised, and drew something you are pleased with. If this is the case, she mentions that chances are that it was the drawing you did of your hand that you particularly fond of.
Once you have thoroughly analyzed these drawings, signed and noted your insights, she asks that you store these drawings away for safe keeping and not return to them until you complete the course and have successfully learned how to better see as an artist.
FIN
That’s it for today, thanks for reading!
I’m MK and this is Draw Daily!