James I was so excited this morning when I read your Lines and the Brain sub stack letter because you cite my colleague Carl Schoonover! I messaged him right away to show him in case he didn’t know and messaged my team too (I’m on the communications team at the Allen Institute). We think it’s cool that you incorporate science into your books and approach.
This morning I sat in my car in a parking lot while my wife shopped. It seemed a popular preference as I noticed many other guys were doing the same. I took the opportunity to draw my view. It all began with a blue line, and grew to of a windshield shape of the Chevy in front of me. Before she returned, many more lines captured the whole parking lot, stores, and light poles. Lines are a beautiful thing as shapes are formed and a visual experience is captured.
My art teacher in high school and I went around and around about whether lines exist or not. We particularly argued about the edge of the lips, where there's a transition in the thickness of the skin. "It's still not a line!" he would proclaim. Years and years later, after he died, I can now go LINES ARE A STYLISTIC CHOICE! but ... you know ... I have nobody to gloat to. :-p
I'm currently going through the "pen & ink drawing workbook" by Alphonso Dunn (i'm almost done !), companion to his "pen & ink drawing, a simple guide". And boy oh boy do we need lines, how we can express a multitude of things with line alone ! It's a perfect example of how "the management of line is one of the most sophisticated skills an artist can master", as we learn in this workbook how to combine, direct, multiply, subtract, contour, increase and decrease value with all sorts of lines. The sky's the limit.
I always had such a struggle to resolve the competing views of "line drawings" and "painting" because I always included too much detail in my sketches to where it was unclear what the center of interest was supposed to be. After some browsing of different ways of "seeing," I realize now that a line is a tool you can use for a specific effect. However, strategic placement of those visual effects will help draw attention to my center of interest, among other effects like value, color, etc.
"These can be sensitive questions to artists who do most of their work in line.They are often made to feel that what they do is just a preliminary step,or that it isn't as advanced as what a painter does"... Wow,I thought that it was just me! ...that I was just responding to the fact that most instruction,etc. seems to imply that modeling and color are the only way to express form.Of course different people see and express themselves in the way that is most natural to them.That Ingres drawing is a perfect example.To me his line not only expresses shape,but weight ,texture, tension and looseness and even temperature.In fact I've always liked his drawings more than his paintings.
I was in my sixties before I began to understand how to integrate my drawing and painting.( When I first saw your American Artist article "Portable Portraits" in 2011 something just clicked...)So interesting to learn something of the science behind this subject.( I wonder if Carl is related to golden age illustrator Frank Schoonover!?)
Just recently I rewatched Jeanette's Sketches in Line and Wash video and have been enjoying trying that out.Its kind of liberating because I usually use pencil.Its strange I've not really given it a try before because one of my all time favorite illustrators John Groth worked that way almost exclusively.Some of the originals for his illustrations are huge...3x4 feet!!! Looking forward to the next installment of this post!
"It's not color,but drawing that makes a painting".
My comment is not related to this post, but to a request related to a book to purchased previously for my great grandchild when he was 7. While his reading wasn't great, he loved it and he did memorize the names of all the dinosaurs in it. That was the first book which I believe you have done a series about dinosaurs. He is age 9 now. I would like to buy the next book in that series for him, which I hope I can get off of Amazon. But I need the name of the book. Can you help me with this?
FYI, I read all these posts you do here on substack. They are so informative both in technique and in art history. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.
James I was so excited this morning when I read your Lines and the Brain sub stack letter because you cite my colleague Carl Schoonover! I messaged him right away to show him in case he didn’t know and messaged my team too (I’m on the communications team at the Allen Institute). We think it’s cool that you incorporate science into your books and approach.
Would you be interested in speaking to Carl if I could organize a conversation via our media team?
This morning I sat in my car in a parking lot while my wife shopped. It seemed a popular preference as I noticed many other guys were doing the same. I took the opportunity to draw my view. It all began with a blue line, and grew to of a windshield shape of the Chevy in front of me. Before she returned, many more lines captured the whole parking lot, stores, and light poles. Lines are a beautiful thing as shapes are formed and a visual experience is captured.
My art teacher in high school and I went around and around about whether lines exist or not. We particularly argued about the edge of the lips, where there's a transition in the thickness of the skin. "It's still not a line!" he would proclaim. Years and years later, after he died, I can now go LINES ARE A STYLISTIC CHOICE! but ... you know ... I have nobody to gloat to. :-p
I'm currently going through the "pen & ink drawing workbook" by Alphonso Dunn (i'm almost done !), companion to his "pen & ink drawing, a simple guide". And boy oh boy do we need lines, how we can express a multitude of things with line alone ! It's a perfect example of how "the management of line is one of the most sophisticated skills an artist can master", as we learn in this workbook how to combine, direct, multiply, subtract, contour, increase and decrease value with all sorts of lines. The sky's the limit.
Whoa, this is like contemplating infinity...
I loved the phrase, "...preference for lines."
I always had such a struggle to resolve the competing views of "line drawings" and "painting" because I always included too much detail in my sketches to where it was unclear what the center of interest was supposed to be. After some browsing of different ways of "seeing," I realize now that a line is a tool you can use for a specific effect. However, strategic placement of those visual effects will help draw attention to my center of interest, among other effects like value, color, etc.
"These can be sensitive questions to artists who do most of their work in line.They are often made to feel that what they do is just a preliminary step,or that it isn't as advanced as what a painter does"... Wow,I thought that it was just me! ...that I was just responding to the fact that most instruction,etc. seems to imply that modeling and color are the only way to express form.Of course different people see and express themselves in the way that is most natural to them.That Ingres drawing is a perfect example.To me his line not only expresses shape,but weight ,texture, tension and looseness and even temperature.In fact I've always liked his drawings more than his paintings.
I was in my sixties before I began to understand how to integrate my drawing and painting.( When I first saw your American Artist article "Portable Portraits" in 2011 something just clicked...)So interesting to learn something of the science behind this subject.( I wonder if Carl is related to golden age illustrator Frank Schoonover!?)
Just recently I rewatched Jeanette's Sketches in Line and Wash video and have been enjoying trying that out.Its kind of liberating because I usually use pencil.Its strange I've not really given it a try before because one of my all time favorite illustrators John Groth worked that way almost exclusively.Some of the originals for his illustrations are huge...3x4 feet!!! Looking forward to the next installment of this post!
"It's not color,but drawing that makes a painting".
---- Vincent Van Gogh
My comment is not related to this post, but to a request related to a book to purchased previously for my great grandchild when he was 7. While his reading wasn't great, he loved it and he did memorize the names of all the dinosaurs in it. That was the first book which I believe you have done a series about dinosaurs. He is age 9 now. I would like to buy the next book in that series for him, which I hope I can get off of Amazon. But I need the name of the book. Can you help me with this?
FYI, I read all these posts you do here on substack. They are so informative both in technique and in art history. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.
Hi, Linda, Here are the titles of my Dinotopia books:
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time
Dinotopia: The World Beneath
Dinotopia: First Flight
Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara
Plus there was a book about the World of Dinosaurs stamps.
More at https://jamesgurney.com/collections/books
Stellar info as always, thank you!