e-mail:
branham at pdx dot edu e-mail:
branham at pdx dot edu
"We see nothing truly until we understand it."
John Constable
"A would-be artist may have the most profound visions, feelings and insights, but without skill there is no art."
Stephen Nachmanovitch"
"Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle."
Frederick Franck
"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions." Leonardo da Vinci
Richer's Anatomy on line: http://tinyurl.com/dy34b5
(to be announced)
Student Work
Pathologies of DrawingCommon problems in drawing the figure
Illustrations
Fun Links:
for further work with the human figure "Hipbone Studio" is a great place to continue your study or just get in more practice
This is a fun site where you can view (and draw) virtual poses from many different angles. It is not a substitutes for drawing from life since it is a two-dimensional image but it gives you look a the various "shape states" of the body (or parts of the body) when there is foreshortening or when looking at the body from unusual viewpoints.
Further study -- Links:
A Career in Scientific/Medical Illustration:
Andreae Vesalius's "De Humani Corporis Fabrica"
100 Years of Medical/Scientific IllustrationVarious figurative art sites in no particular order:
Julie Shelton Smith
Olga Filatieff-Lomnovsky
New York Academy of Art
Basic Life Drawing Lessons
"...shifting to a greater emphasis on personal expression has too often had the effect of lessening the concern with mastering an understanding of universal visual qualities that have always been present in the art of every culture, in every era. These qualities issue from basic human requirements and we look for them in all spheres of activity. Among them is the need for balance and unity, the self evident values of economy, clarity and consistency, the mastery of craft, and the integration of the means and meanings in the images we create. Such qualities do not rise and fall with changing tastes in art. Their presence in all works of art is a fundamental human necessity.
"...in the best drawings, meaning (content) has even more to do with the life of the elements than with the depiction. In such a drawing, meaning is to be found mainly in its being -- in its design strategy, in its dynamic life, and in its expressive character as revealed by the behavior of the visual elements, rather than its representational theme . . . in any form of art it is more important for a work to be than to tell.
(underlines mine, BB)
"The best drawings are not merely descriptions of things, places, and events. They are visual testimony to the feelings, ideas, and inquiries the artists had when encountering their observed or envisioned subjects."
form: visual elements such as line, value, texture, color, composition etc.
content: the meaning conveyed through the formal elements
Nathan Goldstein "A Guide to 100 American and European Drawings"
