Projecting vs. Drawing
To draw or project ones subject on paper…ah, that is the question?
I see nothing WRONG with projecting a photograph taken by the artist. Sometimes a very complex subject, that requires accuracy, requires one to project the image. Restless subjects, such as children, also require the use of photography. However, projection has major creative limitations over drawing.
Drawing helps one familiarize oneself with the subject, its structure, value patterns, and shifting planes. It also permits time to think about how one might manipulate color, edges, etc. to help express what it is about the subject that made one want to paint it in the first place. Drawing requires us to pay attention! It also permits time to simplify and exaggerate a subject and build, for lack of a better word, a ‘relationship’ with the subject that will continue during the painting process. Even if one needs to project an image, I think there is real value in re-drawing the image in order to move things around for the sake of improving design and making it our own.
Here are some additional “up sides” to drawing. You can take a pencil and paper almost anywhere; the more you do it the easier and better it becomes. One cannot help but have very individual art if it is drawn and not projected. There is an incredible sense of satisfaction in “pulling from your depths” an image. Drawing takes time and therefore helps us overcome the ‘tyranny of the clock’ (Art is not about creating production line items. “Quality” art takes time to develop and paint.) Finally, drawing provides more creative flexibility… you cannot project what is in your imagination.
Some art forms are built around photography (transfers in collage for example) but, generally speaking, (and I have heard this from many artists we have filmed) learning to draw well is essential to art, and I would add, a whole lot of fun.
~Lynn~