Drawing Through the Form
By
Armand Cabrera
Many painters get stuck on contour and see only 2d shapes instead of drawing and painting the solidity of the forms they are trying to translate to canvas. When an artist sees everything as a flat shape they tend to ignore the visual clues that help give it more dimensions. You can teach yourself to see the form of a thing by doing what we call drawing through the form when sketching.
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Drawing through the form uses construction lines to further enhance the 3d effect of an object and to set its depth clearly in your mind so you can then translate it to your canvas. It uses perspective, geometry and basic shapes to build your subject with. It is a constructive approach but can be used as an observational approach also.
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It’s a good idea to practice sketching like this at all times until you automatically visualize everything you see this way. Some people prefer to start with red pencil or blue pencil to separate the construction lines from their refined final drawing. Doing this allows you to pick out what’s important to you.
Illustrators and production artists are aware of this approach because many times they are inventing scenes and characters from their imaginations but there is no reason for gallery painters not to use this tool also. Many problems can be avoided by paying attention to volume when drawing a landscape, figurative or still life picture.
(images from top to bottom Will Pogany, Peter Helck, Armand Cabrera all images are copyright to their respective owners)
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Armand Cabrera
Many painters get stuck on contour and see only 2d shapes instead of drawing and painting the solidity of the forms they are trying to translate to canvas. When an artist sees everything as a flat shape they tend to ignore the visual clues that help give it more dimensions. You can teach yourself to see the form of a thing by doing what we call drawing through the form when sketching.
Drawing through the form uses construction lines to further enhance the 3d effect of an object and to set its depth clearly in your mind so you can then translate it to your canvas. It uses perspective, geometry and basic shapes to build your subject with. It is a constructive approach but can be used as an observational approach also.
It’s a good idea to practice sketching like this at all times until you automatically visualize everything you see this way. Some people prefer to start with red pencil or blue pencil to separate the construction lines from their refined final drawing. Doing this allows you to pick out what’s important to you.
Illustrators and production artists are aware of this approach because many times they are inventing scenes and characters from their imaginations but there is no reason for gallery painters not to use this tool also. Many problems can be avoided by paying attention to volume when drawing a landscape, figurative or still life picture.
(images from top to bottom Will Pogany, Peter Helck, Armand Cabrera all images are copyright to their respective owners)
Maine Workshop
by Armand Cabrera
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I will be teaching another workshop in Maine again this year at the Acadia Workshop Center on Mount Desert Island. The center is close to Bass Harbor, Southwest Harbor and a short ride from Bar Harbor and Acadia Park. It will be a fun intense workshop and a chance to paint some of the most beautiful scenery on the East Coast. I hope you will join me. The workshop is from Sept 19-23 2011 and is limited to a maximum of 12 students. The weather is usually mild that time of year and we have a big professional art studio if inclement weather does occur. I hope you will join me.
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For More information contact Gail Ribas at the Acadia Workshop Center
Gail Ribas
Workshop Director
Acadia Workshop Center
7 Bernard Road
Bernard, ME 04612
207-460-4119
awcmaine@gmail.com
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I will be teaching another workshop in Maine again this year at the Acadia Workshop Center on Mount Desert Island. The center is close to Bass Harbor, Southwest Harbor and a short ride from Bar Harbor and Acadia Park. It will be a fun intense workshop and a chance to paint some of the most beautiful scenery on the East Coast. I hope you will join me. The workshop is from Sept 19-23 2011 and is limited to a maximum of 12 students. The weather is usually mild that time of year and we have a big professional art studio if inclement weather does occur. I hope you will join me.
For More information contact Gail Ribas at the Acadia Workshop Center
Gail Ribas
Workshop Director
Acadia Workshop Center
7 Bernard Road
Bernard, ME 04612
207-460-4119
awcmaine@gmail.com
SourceTek Products
by
Armand Cabrera
From time to time I get questions about the type of materials I use and where to buy them. For my panel supplies I use SourceTek. It is a small company in Scottsdale Arizona that handcrafts their panels from the highest quality materials. JoAnne and Will Pierce are the owners of SourceTek and they are dedicated to excellent customer care and service.
SourceTek panels are the best panels on the market. I’ve been using them for almost ten years now. I just wanted to bring some of their new products to your attention. They have expanded their panels to include archival hardboard and a less expensive Academic Line that offers the same handcrafted professional quality of the other lines. The Premium line oil primed linen panels are made with Claessens linens. They also use Claessens acrylic cotton canvas for their Universal Line and the Academic line uses a medium weight polyflax canvas.
SourceTek offers three different substrates, Baltic birch, gatorboard foam and archival hardboard. These substrates are available with or without canvas and linen. They now offer more than 350 different panels.
Other products include the Silver Brush Grand Prix line of paint brushes and Holbein and the Che Son Painting Knives. Che Son knives are manufactured in Italy.
SourceTek has always been about providing artists with solutions for their painting needs. For years they have consistently maintained their quality when everyone else is cutting corners. If you are in the market for quality artist supplies and panels I recommend you give SourceTek products a try.
Website:
http://www.canvaspanels.com/
Email:
General Information: Info@CanvasPanels.com
Sales: Sales@CanvasPanels.com
Service: Service@CanvasPanels.com
Telephone:
(480) 483-6883, Arizona and Canada
(800) 587-5462, Toll-Free Within the United States
011-480-483-6883, International
Mailing Address:
SourceTek
P.O. Box 14765
Scottsdale, AZ 85267-4765
Armand Cabrera
From time to time I get questions about the type of materials I use and where to buy them. For my panel supplies I use SourceTek. It is a small company in Scottsdale Arizona that handcrafts their panels from the highest quality materials. JoAnne and Will Pierce are the owners of SourceTek and they are dedicated to excellent customer care and service.
SourceTek panels are the best panels on the market. I’ve been using them for almost ten years now. I just wanted to bring some of their new products to your attention. They have expanded their panels to include archival hardboard and a less expensive Academic Line that offers the same handcrafted professional quality of the other lines. The Premium line oil primed linen panels are made with Claessens linens. They also use Claessens acrylic cotton canvas for their Universal Line and the Academic line uses a medium weight polyflax canvas.
SourceTek offers three different substrates, Baltic birch, gatorboard foam and archival hardboard. These substrates are available with or without canvas and linen. They now offer more than 350 different panels.
Other products include the Silver Brush Grand Prix line of paint brushes and Holbein and the Che Son Painting Knives. Che Son knives are manufactured in Italy.
SourceTek has always been about providing artists with solutions for their painting needs. For years they have consistently maintained their quality when everyone else is cutting corners. If you are in the market for quality artist supplies and panels I recommend you give SourceTek products a try.
Website:
http://www.canvaspanels.com/
Email:
General Information: Info@CanvasPanels.com
Sales: Sales@CanvasPanels.com
Service: Service@CanvasPanels.com
Telephone:
(480) 483-6883, Arizona and Canada
(800) 587-5462, Toll-Free Within the United States
011-480-483-6883, International
Mailing Address:
SourceTek
P.O. Box 14765
Scottsdale, AZ 85267-4765
Henri Fantin Latour
By Armand Cabrera
Ignace Henri Jean Theodore Fantin-Latour was born in 1836 in the town of Grenoble France. His Father was a pastel artist. Henri studied drawing with his father at age ten. At fourteen he studied under Lecocq de boisbaudran for six years at the Petite Ecole de Dessin in Paris. Latour attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but was expelled after three months for showing no signs of improvement. After his training he began making master copies in the Louvre for twelve years. The practice was an almost daily obsession.
It is in the Louvre that he met many artists including Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. It was Whistler that introduced him to important English patrons and this is where Latour found a lifelong market for his still life paintings.
He exhibited with the Salon between 1861 and 1899. He also exhibited in the Salon de Refuses in 1863 but refused to show with the Impressionists. In 1878 Latour received a medal at the Salon and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. He was a prolific painter producing 2500 paintings in his lifetime. Nearly a quarter of them were still life paintings and most of his paintings were created in a twenty year period from 1870 to 1890. Besides still life paintings he also painted portraits and figurative work.
Toward the end of his life he looked upon still life painting as forced labor but it was so lucrative he could not give them up. Henri Fantin Latour died in 1904 at the age of 68
Bibliography
Henri Fantin Latour
Edward Lucie-Smith
Rizzoli 1977
The Impressionist Still Life
Eliza E. Rathbone and George T.M. Shackelford
Harry N. Abrams 2001
Quote
Ignace Henri Jean Theodore Fantin-Latour was born in 1836 in the town of Grenoble France. His Father was a pastel artist. Henri studied drawing with his father at age ten. At fourteen he studied under Lecocq de boisbaudran for six years at the Petite Ecole de Dessin in Paris. Latour attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but was expelled after three months for showing no signs of improvement. After his training he began making master copies in the Louvre for twelve years. The practice was an almost daily obsession.
It is in the Louvre that he met many artists including Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. It was Whistler that introduced him to important English patrons and this is where Latour found a lifelong market for his still life paintings.
He exhibited with the Salon between 1861 and 1899. He also exhibited in the Salon de Refuses in 1863 but refused to show with the Impressionists. In 1878 Latour received a medal at the Salon and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. He was a prolific painter producing 2500 paintings in his lifetime. Nearly a quarter of them were still life paintings and most of his paintings were created in a twenty year period from 1870 to 1890. Besides still life paintings he also painted portraits and figurative work.
Toward the end of his life he looked upon still life painting as forced labor but it was so lucrative he could not give them up. Henri Fantin Latour died in 1904 at the age of 68
Bibliography
Henri Fantin Latour
Edward Lucie-Smith
Rizzoli 1977
The Impressionist Still Life
Eliza E. Rathbone and George T.M. Shackelford
Harry N. Abrams 2001
Quote
I tried to make a painting representing things as they are found in nature; I put a great deal of thought into the arrangement, but with the idea of making it look like a natural arrangement of random objects. This is an idea that I have been mulling over a great deal; giving the appearance of a total lack of artistry~ Henri Fantin Latour
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