To Draw is to Be Human Response

I thought the comparisons between drawing and painting in "To Draw is to Be Human" by Emma Dexter were very provocative.  It really made me think about the difference between the two.  While I see why the author thinks what she does about drawing involving line and background and painting involving a process of covering, I'm not sure I agree. There are works considered as paintings that do not cover up the background, whereas some works considered drawings cover everything.  I think it depends more on the artist's intent.  If an artist feels like he/she is painting when using charcoal, I think the piece can be considered a painting.  Many artists who use paint proclaim their pieces as drawings.  Besides, there was a time when drawing and painting were inseparably intertwined.  Renaissance painters considered drawing to be an invaluable tool for their masterpieces.  They would "draw" on the canvas before "covering" it with paint.  When artists like Titian began painting without first creating a drawing they faced criticism from the more traditional artists.  The traditional artists believed you couldn't have painting without drawing.  I'm still not sure there really is a difference between the two.

The article did inspire me to draw though.  It makes it seem as if even terrible drawings are great masterpieces.  I definitely appreciate the concept of drawings more after reading that.

Maggie Wurzer


Also, here is a picture of a series of paintings I did last semester.

To draw is to be human response.

Creating art comes in many forms, whether it is painting, sculpture, or drawing which is the focus of this article. Drawing drives the human curiosity to create what we might not have thought to become possible in the real world. Drawing is also a skill that does not fall on the few, but everyone possesses a potential to draw. By using drawing as an artistic medium you can also tell a story, and change the way people can see the world. The characteristics of drawing, primal and elemental can be found throughout human history. By using the storytelling side of drawing, you can inspire those around you to draw what they might see as important. My mom is a retired kindergarten teacher, she drew to help her students to learn the alphabet and be expressive through drawings. Even though she is not a professional artist or never went to art school, she used her own creativity and imagination to help her students learn.

I have always drawn the cartoony side of what I see around me. I feel like there is always a simple and different side to objects or people. So I try to capture that moment in my drawings or comics. Also, I need to make more comics, cause I feel that is a medium of art, like drawing it can’t be defined by one meaning.

-Natalee

"To Draw is to Be Human" Response

Dexter's comment -- "drawing is part of our interrelation to our physical environment" touches on the idea that drawing (or human art, more generally) is entirely influenced by one's experience in the world; by what is, in other words. As abstract as a drawing may be, in the end, it's still an "imitation of reality, and reality is art" as author, N.D. Wilson puts it. With drawing, however, comes a certain freedom and subjectivity. As concrete as reality is, drawing is nevertheless a "feeling", quotes Dexter. Picasso saw it as a "way of seizing the power [of the world] by giving form to our terrors as well our desires".  In a sense, drawing is form of communication: an artist utilizes a set of elements -- line, space, shape, etc. (all long since defined and made available by the world he's born into) -- to make a statement and/or pose a question. In the end, some kind of response to the drawing is inevitable. An observer's fondness, disgust, or indifference to the artist's drawing is directly tied to their own predispositions (shaped by their own experiences). 

One unique aspect of drawing which, in certain cases, gives it precedence over other art forms, is the potential immediacy of the product. It's a way of "experiencing [the work] more quickly", as Dexter puts it, than other art forms.  She sheds light on the fact that historically, mapping out with pencil or charcoal has been "a means of thinking through and preparing in advance for completed works of sculpture or painting." Which is to say, the power of a meticulously-crafted oil landscape has much to owe to the artist's original sense of balance and line as understood via the drawing. 

Chase Wantland

http://chaseorion.blogspot.com/

Response to Emma Dexter article

           The article “To Draw is to be Human” by Emma Dexter is very provocative in its ability to make the reader rethink the concept of drawing and expand it to include a wide variety of marks made on the world, including a person’s footprints in the snow or breath on a window.  Dexter points out that drawing is really the only artistic medium that can apply to these actions or that can be explained in the way she describes the concept of drawing in relation to human action.  One of the things I found most intriguing in this article was the comparison that Dexter creates between drawing and painting.  I would consider myself more of a painter than a drawer in the traditional sense, but after reading some of these ideas, I can begin to see some of the ways in which some of my art could be seen as drawing in the conceptual way that Dexter presents it.  

           Drawing has some aspect of transparency and allows for the feeling of incompletion in a work of art.  According to this article, one of the main differences between a painting and a drawing is that a painting has a feel of completion and totality while a drawing may always seem incomplete in a way.  Drawing also lets the viewer see the process of creation and every mark whether purposeful or accidental is seen on the paper.  Contrastingly, in a painting the “moment of making is hidden” and any mistakes can be hidden by layering of paint and reworking of the surface.  One thing that was mentioned that I found very interesting was that the art of watercolor falls between these two concepts.  According to the article a painting completely covers the paper or canvas on which it is painted, while the blank background of a drawing actually plays a role in its composition.  Watercolor is not completely a painting, because the background shows through the pigment, but it is not a drawing either, because the paper is completely filled with color.  This I found very interesting, because I have been working a lot with watercolor lately and I think this explanation of the effect of the transparency of watercolor is very accurate.

Nora Brown

~To Draw is to Be Human~ & Sample Works

I am very impressed by how this relatively short article manages to touch upon so many different aspects of drawing. Not limiting itself to a historical or pre-historical analysis of its role, the article also includes the modern history of drawing and its potential future. Emma Dexter does not just show us her view and her experiences with drawing, but instead shows us everything that has influenced her view of drawing. 

I'm particularly taken with her emphasis on the primal nature of drawing, that it is inherent to every human being, regardless of talent or skill. We all feel the desire to draw early in life, before we faced judgement and critique from both our peers and our elders. Part of what makes drawing so universal is its immediacy - all you need is a surface and a mark-maker. That could be a pen and paper, or a stick in the dirt, or a smear on the wall. There is no limit to what can be used as tools for drawing and even the professional tools tend to be significantly less expensive compared to that of painting or sculpture. 

My only critique would be that Dexter pushes the reader very heavily down a predetermined path, leaving us little room for our own interpretation, most likely as a consequence of having so much to say in so small an article.

To follow, here's some examples of my works:

"To Draw is to be Human" response

While reading this I kept remembering how inspired I was by the movie Ratatouille. The reason being because in the reading they were saying how everyone can draw, no matter the skill level, while in Ratatouille the motto was "everyone can cook." Not all people can cook well per say, but everyone can. This applies to drawing as well. Drawing is a part of life. No matter how one puts it, in some way, everyone draws. One of the things that caught my attention was when Dexter said that drawing is how we see a lot of the past. I believe that this is true; a lot of discoveries made have been thanks to old drawings being analyzed.

I never really looked at drawing as more than a way of expression. Now I learned it could go much deeper than that. Never would I have thought that drawing one line on a blank paper would suddenly cause the background to have an identity. When I thought about it more, I came to agree with that statement. When I make a mark, the surface that I made it on suddenly becomes a background. I always thought that a background was something that had to be drawn in with whatever you drew to be the main attraction, or the background had to be some sort of environment. Now I realize that negative space also has a role to play as a background.

by~ Paige Horace

-To Draw is to Be Human-

~homeworkpostyayyyy~

While reading To Draw is to Be Human, I was taken by simply the title. I've never thought all that deeply about drawing in ways other than as my hobby, a way of expressing myself, and putting my thoughts and ideas onto paper, but the statement that "everyone draws" is something that caught my attention. Because it's true! In my childhood, I drew on paper, my house walls, or whatever happened to be around. Cardboard was acceptable for my crayons. I didn't care. And looking at people, those who need to explain an idea that they have via sketches -- group members of mine did that just the other day -- I look back and realize that, while everyone may not be an "artist" in the way many may see them, as those who excel in drawing, everyone does draw. It's a form of expression, and sometimes communication.

For me, that's why I've always drawn things. I never thought, and might never think, about it nearly as much as the reading did, nor did I always think of the "purity of the blank piece of paper" as such a blessing and that the marks I placed would be there forever. Still, it made me think about why I draw, and why I want to draw, and that's twofold. One, I enjoy doing what I love, and I'll keep doing it so long as I enjoy it, and two, I want to leave my own mark on the world somewhere. I want to be immortalized by something, whether it's from my art, my writing, or whatever it may be, because I have this peculiar fear of being forgotten by people close to me. And, besides, if the marks on paper, as the reading states, are there forever, is it not the same for the spirit of the artist?

~ Christine (Frosty)

Hey Everyone!

Guess I should go ahead and introduce myself again! I'm Paige Horace so you know since my name shows up as RadicalFox. I'll show you guys a few samples of the kind of stuff I normally do here on this post... or you can just go straight on to my Deviant Art page since that's where I post most of my things: RadicalFox's/Paige Horace's DA

I do digital art mostly now.

This is a fanart I did of Black Rock Shooter.



This is random sketching I did in photoshop.



and this is a speed paint I did of a pikachu.



As much as I love digital painting, a lot of my things tend to stay in sketch form, may it just be traditional pencil, or black and white digital like the second picture above. See you guys in class!

The places were I post.

Hey everyone! Here are some links to sites where I post drawings, there is a lot of old and new stuff. Well kinda, so take a look, have a giggle, don't be scared.

http://bagelism.tumblr.com/

http://supersushi.deviantart.com/

Hello Drawers

Eddy Hubbard, this is a few stuff I've done. Post your opinion below

Howdy Y'all!

I’m Amanda McTigue, and here are a few things I’ve done in the past few years that I thought you might enjoy looking at. The videos are only a couple of minutes long, so don’t be afraid to watch them. They’re not training for a marathon lol

“LOVER’S SEA”


“PANGS OF CAPTIVITY”


A charcoal drawing of a cow bone:


And this is what happens when I get bored in class:

1st PAGE OF MY GRAPHIC NOVEL

A Small Glimpse

Hello all! Amelia here. Unfortunately I don't have a website or anything fun like that to link you all to. Nor do I have high quality photographs of my work. But I wanted to give everyone a small taste of what I have done in the past, so I took pictures of them with my cell phone.

Sad, I know.

I primarily work with oil paint and dabble here and there with mixed media. Drawing does play a big part in what I do though. :)

"Brutus the Cat" Mixed Media. Paper, towels, coffee, tea, and marker.

Oil Painting of a picture from an Urban Outfitters catalog.

Also, I totally didn't think to share what kind of direction I'm going in with my work so I will share that now! I am Iranian (same thing as Persian for those that don't know) and like most Iranians, have a huge problem with the government. I usually paint something in response to what is going on in the country.

I apologize for the lengthy post and for not having quality photographs of my work! And for not having much to show for myself.

Um, is This How I Post Stuff?

Um... I don't know if I'm doing this right or not, it's been a while since I've used this site... so um, yeah, it looks like others are linking to their websites and stuff, so I guess i will.. I only post stuff on Deviantart and the portfolio site you can access through DA. There isn't much since I haven't felt comfortable enough with my work to post it until recently, and also because I am lazy and my scanner hates me. So~ yeah, enjoy, I guess... if anyone even cares to look at the utter tripe I create and call art..

http://sarunei.deviantart.com/

http://taylorkobs.daportfolio.com/

P.S. There is not any of my art from other art classes I have taken up on either site yet because I have not found the time and proper setting to photograph my works. I will hopefully get some up before this class ends, so people who care can see....

My Work and all that Jazz~

Hello everyone! <3 I'm Christine Leazar. The nickname at the bottom is probably misleading... :x

I figured that I'd post some of my previous works up for people to see. Now, I don't personally like to say they're all that great, but there's a lot of effort that goes into what I do nonetheless. Lately, what I've tended to do is refine one of my own character designs or draw fanart, and I work with both traditional pencil and digital means (via a Photoshop-like program that I like to think does the trick quite nicely) to do it. I had more (and better) things on my computer before, but due to a hard drive crash earlier last year, I lost a great deal of it, so I have to make due with the little I have at the moment.

All of these were done towards the latter end of last year.

Mostly just the brush tool, without lineart. I used to have this huge obsession with Sonic the Hedgehog and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Still pretty cool, but this was just kinda something I did out of boredom.

Experimenting with the watercolor tool in my Photoshop-like program, called PaintTool SAI.

Traditional pencil, which I feel I'm best at, really. Still kinda like fanart, but it's a character I designed myself that I write about for the lols.

For all of these, I believe they can be clicked on to be made larger.

As you can see, I have an affinity for 2D and a somewhat... anime-esque style. But that tends to change depending on what I'm doing, really. I have a sketchbook full of various things, some good, some... not so good. I might post more later as I get more.

Oh, and don't mind the 'Frosty' signature at the bottom. That's just a nickname I've had for a while now. That said, thanks for looking at all this, guys!

Process and Materials-Gabriel Orozco Corplegados and Particles

Your first project will focus on the process of drawing and the physical and material properties of various drawing materials. Think of this segment of our course as a time of in depth investigation, experimentation and play with materials while paying attention to (and perhaps even noting in your sketchbooks) your process. Use the examples below for reference and inspiration along with the artists reviewed in class. You will be required to complete a 5x5" daily process drawing along with two life-sized (approximately) process drawings by our critique on February 13th. 

I Gabriel Orozco

Corplegados and Particles

Gabriel Orozco at Marian Goodman 2011

Orozco Corplegados on Art Addict

II Terry Winters

III Eve Asheim

Plural Blur, 2006, 12″ x 9,” Gesso, Black gesso, ink, and graphite, on mylar

Stretch 1998, gouache, crayon and pencil on synthetic polymer 30.5x22.9cm

Deluxe 3X, 2010, Gesso, graphite and ink on mylar 17x12"

IV Lee Ufan

V Robert Morris

fingerprints and ink on paper

fingerprints and ink on paper

Robert Morris, Blind Time (Grief) at Sprueth Magers, CAD