Ron wants to know: “I am struggling with the concept of gesture followed by contour, as in when to stop!”
Combining gesture and contour on the same drawing is lots of fun: a quick gesture and then switching to contour style on the same drawing (maybe swapping hands too!). Here, you’re combining the 2 techniques: quick gestural marks and slow and deliberate contours. I call this “drawing fast and slow” – fast so you intuitively react to the image and slow, so that you move into the careful observation zone. Two complementary aspects of drawing and an opportunity for a combination of expression and description.
One approach that works reliably is to define only in part, leaving the fluid gesture to carry some of the picture space. Defining selected aspects and not others sets up a tension and equally draws in an emphasis. Often, less is more and I’d suggest use of line where the gesture leaves the opportunity, there is a new aspect to define or a statement of importance is to be made. Where the gesture is strong, I tend to leave it to do the speaking. The voice of gesture is loud – as soon as you let the gesture remain with some prominence, you can “read in” construction marks and searching lines as well, ultimately thinking “there are no wrong marks”. Not that it’s all that simple…but maybe….
In a similar vein, I’ve become very sensitive about cleaning up my drawings. I don’t do this much. Time and time again, I find that removing a construction line, smudge or random finger print does not have the desired effect. I still do a little of this at times but with care, normally leaving some of the off-image marks. Every little thing is part of an image and the impact is changed in subtle ways when something is removed. To quote Joni Mitchell: “Don’t it always seem to go – That you don’t know what you’ve got – ‘Till it’s gone”.
Break-a-Brush!
David
