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Technical Directive 25 October 2004 Plumb Line A plumb line is a string with a weight at the end. Hold the string in one hand and steady the weight with the other. You now have a perfectly vertical line along which to sight different parts on the subject and see how they align. Simply shift [...]
Technical Directive 22 October 2004 Negative Space Negative space is the space around any part of an object. It’s the space on the other side of a line enclosing a shape. It’s where the object isn’t. Place your attention on an area of negative space. Notice it has a shape of its own. much to [...]
Technical Directive 22 October 2004 Refining a Drawing There are two ways to advance a work: CONTINUE TO DRAW—OR—ADJUST WHAT YOU HAVE. Continuing to Draw An artist has complete freedom to work anywhere at any time. But that doesn’t mean you can act like a kid in a candy store with no one behind the [...]
Technical Directive 21 October 2004 Key Elements Let’s take building accuracy into a drawing to an even higher level. You can introduce another stage after your rough sketch. Carefully arrange certain KEY ELEMENTS to serve as stepping stones for positioning parts of your drawing accurately. These key elements include certain FLOWS. Flows A flow expresses [...]
Technical Directive 28 October 2004 Stay in Control A word of advice: CONTROL YOUR WORK OR IT WILL CONTROL YOU! To stay in control, work with one of The Three Basic Principles each time you observe. For instance, decide to work from large to small or to relate; then observe the subject. This is an [...]
Technical Directive 27 October 2004 The First Three Steps TO CREATE ART, YOU GET AN IDEA AND THEN MAKE IT REAL FOR OTHERS. The idea comes first—then you do it. An artist selects a subject, decides how it should be as a drawing or painting, and pictures it done before getting started. The clearer the [...]
Technical Directive 26 October 2004 Mirrors and Reducing Glasses We’ve been using plumb lines and mirrors to help us draw accurately for centuries. A mirror image of a subject reverses it, doubles the distance, and gives us a fresh, new look. An accomplished portrait artist will use a mirror to help perfect the likeness of [...]
Technical Directive 23 October 2004 Measuring with a Stick To measure any length you see, compare it with another. One at a time, you can sight two dimensions along a stick, compare them and note the difference. You can compare a height and width, height and height or width and width. The margin of error [...]
Technical Directive 20 October 2004 Three Basic Principles The THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES are the broadest working principles for creating fine art: Relate a part to other parts and/or the whole. Always work from large to small. Cycle throughout the whole thing. These three principles are ways TO OBSERVE—to notice with a purpose. Used alone or [...]
Technical Directive 19 October 2004 Stable Point You will increase a drawing’s accuracy if you carefully align its parts. Aside from being less than entirely accurate in the first place, as we draw, various parts can shift about without our realizing it, causing all sorts of misalignments. All drawing errors can be remedied by pinning [...]
