From Life or From Photos: Rockwell and Degas

After Degas' In the Orchestra Pit
done on the Nintendo DS

Yesterday I brought up the debate over drawing from photographs or from life. Today I thought I'd look at the practices of two famous artists, Norman Rockwell and Edgar Degas.

Norman Rockwell began his career drawing from life only, but as models grew more expensive and photos less so, he started using multiple photographs to work from. (To be clear, he hired a photographer and directed all the shots.) He defended his practice by saying that he had drawn from life for decades in his professional life, so he knew what he was doing. I agree, he knew what he was doing. And of course, he drew from black and white photographs and painted in color.

Edgar Degas was fascinated by the cropping and distortion that photographs brought to a scene - in some ways the same attraction for him as with Japanese prints. Many of Degas' paintings have a "snapshot" quality to them - of course, that was revolutionary at the time.

I would venture that in both of these cases, these artists used photographs to enhance their work. They were not slavishly addicted them, were able to extrapolate from them, and understand the differences that the photographing process brought.

Lessons from Parrish and Rockwell

This is my review post on this month's artists: Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell. I should really have a final color study to show you, but well, I'm too vain to show it. So, the month didn't turn out as I had hoped, but I have learned a few things and for that I'm grateful. Here they are:

Lessons About Parrish and Rockwell:

• They worked out all those details in their work - and it was work. I have a greater appreciation for what it takes to achieve a composition like theirs. They didn't knock those up in a day or a week. Rockwell always did a final charcoal drawing before being on the final canvas. When you look at those, they are identical to a black and white version of the final - he did dozens of charcoal drawings and color studies before that final charcoal drawing. That was weeks of work.
• They planned. Both of these artists were perfectionists. They worked each detail to it's own advantage and the advantage of the composition as a whole. That takes planning and experience.
• They had a great knowledge of their medium, the "rules" of drawing, and combined that knowledge with experience. So, their knowledge (I believe) became very instinctual to them. This enabled them to achieve more and more.
• They had confidence in their abilities and vision. They combined that confidence with perseverance in hard work.

What I bring in my backpack from this experience:

• I still have more to learn in working with color, values, and colored pencils.
• I need to keep drawing in graphite while I am working on something like this, just to keep up my confidence.
• I have grown discouraged with this project, but I don't want to quit, I'm just hungry for more knowledge.
• I need to find my strengths and play to them.
• I need to find my weaknesses and strengthen them.

Playing With Colors

This weekend I did a color study for the Parrish/Rockwell project this month. I started out by doing a monochromatic blue underpainting on the back of my vellum. Parrish did blue monochromatic underpaintings - to great effect in the lighting of his work.

What I found:

• Note: the background is the blue coming through the back of the vellum.
• All that blue coming through made it difficult to get the right color choices in the outfit. (This is why the uniform is well, not a uniform color - I think maybe the combination on the hat is the closest to what I want, but I'm not entirely happy with it either.)
• All that blue coming through on the face was near impossible to get rid of - as a result the face just kept getting more orange.
• I need to be more careful with the underpainting, if I do it too quickly it will be streaky.

So, I'm on to another color study. This time I may choose something entirely different for the underpainting - I rather like that idea, but the blue may not be working because its CPs and not oils, or it may not be working because I'm not Parrish! :-)

Tough Day

Here's an update on my Rockwell/Parrish project. I refined the drawing and worked on some of the values. I'm still not happy with it, but I'm not sure why or where to go next. And I still can't decide what to do with the window. I'm almost tempted to just leave it vague back there.

It's been a tough day around here. Think I better just let it lie for now...

Drawing from the Masters #5

This is my working draft for the Parrish/Rockwell project this month. The soldier is from a Marine Homecoming cover that Rockwell did. The window is inspired from some train windows that Rockwell drew on a troop train. The lighting will be inspired by Parrish, so it is different than on the original soldier. The window or framing idea is also common to Parrish. I am still playing with ideas for what to put out the window. Nice trees are found in both illustrator's works. Certainly there will be blue sky, but what else? I thought about an oak tree and then calling it "The Mighty Oak", but the soldier looked rather young to be called a mighty oak. Any ideas?

Now a bit from Hale, which dovetails in nicely with all this consideration of lighting. He's discussing light and planes in chapter 3. He says "the contrast of light and dark is one of the most important devices we have for creating the illusion of shape...Be careful not to put a black line or blotch in the highlight. Your line or blotch usually represents an unimportant detail; but it will be in extreme contrast with the highlight and will seem like one of the most important elements in the picture."

Hale seems to repeatedly stress these two themes:

• drawing takes practice (he constantly uses phrases like "hundreds of times" when refering to doing exercises)
• artists don't draw what they see, they draw what they want you to see

Both of these points can be controversial, but in a great measure I think both are very true and part of what makes this book such an encouragement to me.

Boy Scouts Across the Finish Line

Last night I found (I think) the Norman Rockwell image that I want to rework with Maxfield Parrish lighting. So today I am keen to get started. That means that I just did a quick one on the the second boy scout in this sketch.

I have to say that Rockwell meticulously planned out his paintings with charcoal studies and color studies - and it shows in the final product. Each value and shape is just so to express exactly the thing he wants it to say.

All the more reason to get on with my real project for this month. Off to make beef tamale pie!