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| Portrait of Michelangelo, after Volterra, digital, January 2019 |
Regular and intense drawing is a discipline that was preached by masters of the 16th and 17th centuries. Michelangelo famously wrote to a stumbling disciple: "Disegnía antonío disegnia antonío / disegnia e no[n] p[er]der te[m]po," that is, Draw Antonio, Draw Antonio and don't waste time. Fine advice.
My daily digital practice sketches continue. Over the past couple of years, in addition to doing oil and watercolor work I've done some full-size casein paintings too. But daily digital drawing has been a constant feature of my work. For me, the more sketching practice the better my eye becomes. The speed and convenience of the digital medium has made for progress. In particular, the use of layers and multiple values--chiaroscuro drawing--has been much simpler to explore. Accurate draftsmanship is fundamental in all media of course, but particularly in those that are less forgiving, less simply corrected. Using digital program layers it's easy, leading to fewer false starts and more satisfactory results. Working in layers lets the artist isolate each and avoid complete loss of the work.
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| Albert Einstein, digital, October 2018 |
Digital drawing is obviously useful for simple line drawings, too, like the one here of Albert Einstein, the famous physicist. In this case my objective was to capture the man's likeness using only line--that is, varying line weights to emulate important edges. That plus vignetting and the use of lost and discovered edges (lines) made this drawing an interesting one. The digital program made corrections simpler.
A similar result has been possible with landscapes. I can either do line-only work or do it it layers. An example of the latter is this landscape study from earlier this year from a personal reference. We had visited Reno, Nevada to see family but there was no time to draw or paint much while we were there. Reno is famous as a gambling mecca, but it's also surrounded by beautiful desert scenery. And the Truckee River runs swiftly through the city, studded with smooth boulders and not too deep. The city has transformed much of the river front into parkland. This is a considerably modified view of one of the footbridges over the river, the drawing done in several layers.
For those who haven't tried digital media yet, my advice is to give a whirl. You can get excellent programs online at no cost, and the price of tablets continues to decline. Go for it.
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