We frequently relate to preliminaries and sketches on a different level to that of finished works. There’s something so fresh about a study, done perhaps for the artists themselves, often as part of a further creative process. Many artists have weighed in with opinions:
From van Gogh: “As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward.”
In a similar vein from John Singer Sargent: “You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.”
I found this quote from John Constable somewhat thought provoking: “When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture.”
“I would rather teach drawing that my pupils may learn to love nature,” said John Ruskin (a contemporary of Constable), “than teach the looking at nature that they may learn to draw.”
Then from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: “Drawing is not just reproducing contours, it is not just the line; drawing is also the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modelling. See what is left after that. Drawing is seven eighths of what makes up painting.”
However, I definitely agree with (as is often the case) Eugene Delacroix:
“Perhaps the sketch of a work is so pleasing because everyone can finish it as (they) choose.”
Break-a-Brush!
David
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“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” – John W. Gardner