Comments for The Human Form, a life drawing blog

Comment on DAVID GAMBLE, LIFE DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS by mark haban

mark haban — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:07:51 +0000

hello…I am from jogjakarta-indonesia
please visit my gallery and give me some critics or anything
thank you before

Comment on SIR WILLIAM COLDSTREAM by Will Stevens

Will Stevens — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:32:43 +0000

Thanks Martin, I’m exceedingly grateful for your input regarding this interesting artist, particularly the personal recollections regarding his teaching style.(I’d be happy to hear more.)Philosophically and artistically I prefer an approach that involves some kind of measuring rather than none at all but as a teacher I’m aware that people can find the discipline involved incredibly hard. Coldstream therefore stands out as an example that it can be possible to take a delight in the mathematics of a picture and not find it boring as most people seem to do. I am a little mystified as to why some of the paintings had to take so long however, but’s that’s only my personal opinion. I also like his hat
regards
Will Stevens

Comment on SIR WILLIAM COLDSTREAM by Martin Roberts

Martin Roberts — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:26:57 +0000

Coldstream “left his mark” in many ways! His paintings are often fresh, quite loose in the application of paint but tied together with the drawing of measurement.
I knew him quite well whilst studying at The Slade during his final time there. He allowed me to visit him at the studio in Hampstead where he was painting some flowers in a vase near the window. A nail in the floor showed him where to place his foot so that he was always in the same position relative to the still life. He was very aware of the fact that not everything can be tied down by measurement. As we all know our two eyes create different relationships between edges in the foreground and background. Many of his paintings show this dilemma, even celebrate it, unlike Euan Uglow who preferred a definite edge.
When teaching Coldstream would happily paint away on my canvas, I’m not sure if this applied to others, he was casual and amusing often cracking jokes. In particular he would stress the difference between :
1) Searching out a colour relationship with many trial blobs or marks, and
2) Testing a distance from one place to another on the canvas.
He would establish one distance, fairly centrally, which would never be moved throughout the painting. All other distances were in some way related to this distance.
I was delighted to see the drawing by Hockney, it exhibits both the light and unsure touch associated with all Coldstream’s work.

Comment on THE LAY FIGURE, OR LIFE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL by erik spaans

erik spaans — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:29:27 +0000

Dear Will Stevens,

Interesting subject: lay figures.

Three things.

1. In Dutch / Flemish they used to be called ‘Manneken’ , which literally means ‘little man’. This later was ‘frenchized’ into: mannequin, a word still used (though in a slightly different context).

2. Lay figures were also used for other purposes. The bigger ones proved useful for purposes of painting clothes. An elegant dress for example would be put on a doll rather than a real model. Painter Gerard ter Borch used lay figures in this way.

3. You can also see lay figures in paintings by Adriaen van Ostade (The painter in his studio, Dresden) and Wallerand Vaillant.

Cheers,

Erik Spaans

Comment on SIR WILLIAM COLDSTREAM by Will Stevens

Will Stevens — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:20:51 +0000

You make a number of very interesting points there. Firstly I think you were absoloutely right to point out to your students that even the great artists don’t always get things right all the time. I actually think that it’s slightly strange if there is never some sense of struggle in a persons drawing at least some of the time. I remember once a few years ago I used a particularly muscley model who a lot of people in the group couldn’t draw because they were too used to drawing conventional long limbed life models and they therefore had to approach their drawings in a completely different way. It can be all to easy to draw effectively the “same” life drawing over and over again and I can be as guilty of this as anyone else.
You are also correct to point out the sketchy quality in Coldstream’s work. How much more sense they would indeed make if they were more polished and Ingres-esque. Euan Uglow, a pupil of Coldstream did produce quite sensual work colourwise but if anything his forms are even more geometric.
This sort of way of working was very popular in English art schools once upon a time, particularly in the Slade school of art in London and Camberwell. I’d love to know if students who attend those colleges still draw in this way. For me it sums up a very dreary notion of “good taste” but is still an interesting idea of an approach to put to my own students from time to time. “If you think I’m mad trying to get you to measure one or two things you should see this guy etc etc”

Comment on DEGAS/PAULA REGO by lookingforbeauty

lookingforbeauty — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:59:56 +0000

Most interesting.
Degas is one of my very favourite painters and pastellists.
I’ve just recently become aware of Paula Rego’s work. It’s very compelling. It has strong movement and great compositional force. I agree with your opinion that her work has a strong animal quality to her human figures. Lucien Freud’s work also has that animal force bursting from his figures.
K
artiseternal.wordpress.com

Comment on SIR WILLIAM COLDSTREAM by lookingforbeauty

lookingforbeauty — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:38:40 +0000

The obsessions of artists are fascinating. I can’t fault Coldstream for his desire to get the proportions correctly, but it seems he has gone further than that.
It must have been crippling for students learning to draw, feeling that everything had to be measured and “correct”. Yet, I found that when I was learning and frustrated in my own drawings with “getting it right” I took a ruler and measured until it was “right”.
Later when I was teaching, I preferred to use a wide variety of examples for teaching students to draw figures. I emphasized the drawings of masters where “mistakes” could be seen underneath the final result so that students could see that even the masters didn’t just automatically “get it right”.

There is value in the struggle to observe, to coordinate hand and eye in placing marks upon the support for the drawing by use of the eye alone (without thumb or ruler). Working directly gives the students a more forgiving start in their explorations and helps them build their confidence. If masters could make mistakes, then their own could not be so dire.
In looking on Coldstream’s works that you have provided here, there is a curious mix of rigidity and stillness that bespeaks his meditation on measured form. On the other hand, his manner of applying paint is much more freely applied than one might think for a painter whose basic precept is careful and studious measurement. I would rather have thought he might be looking for that licked quality of Dominique Ingres, the French Pompiers or the Classicists.

Thanks for talking about this artist. He’s one I was not aware of before.
K
artiseternal.wordpress.com

Comment on A FEW LIFE DRAWINGS FROM THIS WEEK’S CLASS by Will Stevens

Will Stevens — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:14:38 +0000

Thanks for your comment. (Sorry for not ‘approving’ it earlier!) Magda uses coloured inks and watercolour. I’ll be seeing her soon so I will try and find out what brand she uses and get back to you.

Comment on A FEW LIFE DRAWINGS FROM THIS WEEK’S CLASS by Julie

Julie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:47:13 +0000

Hi-can you tell me what ink/paint was used for the 2nd and 3rd life drawing?

Comment on A FEW LIFE DRAWINGS FROM THIS WEEK’S CLASS by Will Stevens

Will Stevens — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:51:18 +0000

Glad you like them Sandra!