Page 132 - sarah-simblet_sketch-book-for-the-artist

PORTRAITURE132

Poise

THE BALANCE BETWEEN a mark and a blank space is often a girl onto the page. While with longer consideration,
tantalizing form of perfection. The aesthetic sense of a line Holbein maps the still landscape of Dorothea's body
being just right can make a drawing sing. The Tightness of in questioning marks, stealthily using his chalk to find
a line is felt in its speed, length, breadth, and pressure as it contours and mass, adding smudges of tone for weight and
conducts our eye through the image. Here the grace and solidity. Her face is drawn tenderly and with a luminous
beauty of two young women are held forever. We can read so glow. It is the portrait of a countrywoman, caught in her
much about them by studying their gaze. Without faltering, last moments of youth, teetering on the brink of older age,
Picasso strikes and scrolls his pencil, whisking a timeless one eye already cast askew into the autumn of her life.

PABLO PICASSO
Spanish Cubist painter (see
also p.30). Picasso has left
to posterity many hundreds
of magnificent line drawings.
Through exhibitions and
copies in books, we can enjoy
and learn from them. For the
beginner, they serve as a
great lesson that it is not
always necessary to add tone
to your drawing. How could
the addition of shadows have
enhanced this image?

Few strokes The simplicity of
Picasso's line is breathtaking. He
makes his flair and skill look easy.
We can actually count that he
struck the paper 40 times. There
is a common misunderstanding
that a drawing with only a few lines
is both less finished and easier to
make than a drawing with more.
The truth is often the opposite. It
takes a truly accomplished hand
to capture something well in only
a few strokes.

Frangoise au Bandeau
1946
660 x 505 mm (26 x197/8in)

PABLO PICASSO