The two "bibles", if you will, of the studio in which I received most of my training were both written by Harold Speed --
"The Practice and Science of Drawing" and
"Oil Painting Techniques and Materials". Dover editions of both are available from Amazon.com.
They are, simply, exactly what the titles say they are, but in such remarkable depth -- informative, instructive, thought-provoking -- without a single superfluous sentence, remark, or observation, that they could sustain a multi-year study of the subjects. I know extraordinarily competent artists who would consider themselves negligent (and foolish) not to revisit these books periodically, as only the intervening periods of hands-on experience will fully illuminate all that is presented by the author.
"Beach reads" they're not. Just to take an example, visitors to the Portrait Critiques area of SOG will have often seen me writing about "overmodeling" in certain areas of a drawing or painting. This is a small part of Speed's remarks on the subject:
Quote:
|
[W]hile studying the gradations of tone that express form and give the modelling, you should never neglect to keep the mind fixed upon the relationship the part you are painting bears to the whole picture. * * * It is one of the most difficult things to decide the amount of variety and emphasis allowable for the smaller parts of a picture, so as to bring all in harmony with that oneness of impression that should dominate the whole[.} In the best work, the greatest economy is exercised in this respect, so that as much power may be kept in reserve as possible.
|
This illuminating instruction -- that a successful drawing or painting is not a jigsaw of a large number of smaller, "complete" drawings or paintings, but is an entirety in which the parts are unified and harmonized, all in deliberate and thoughtful relation to one another -- is something that can take very long to assimilate and put into practice. Attentive reading of Speed's books will shorten the time between the serious student's first creative impulses and eventual command of design and materials.
Threaded Mode
