Making Marks – Classical vs. Modern

If you’ve been visiting my blog recently you will have noticed that I have been doing a focused study of pen & ink work. Although many people today use pen and ink in their sketches or artwork, most do not use it in a classical style. That classical style is really not popular today for more than scientific or perhaps technical illustrations. From the 19^th Century back to the Renaissance the classical form of pen and ink marks were an artistic staple. I call them “classical” marks as they mirrored the marks seen in engravings and woodcuts (woodblock prints) which were also popular in those times. Relatively linear, these classical marks created very solid-looking images, where the details stand out in high-relief. Modern marks, on the other hand, are more airy, varied, and generalized.

Howard Pyle is a master of classical marks. His pen and ink illustration style is very reminiscent of woodblock marks and reminds me strongly of the work of Albrecht Durer. In fact, I’m sure Pyle studied Durer when he was learning. As I struggle to copy his marks, I find that the marks really do tell the story of the artist. They are very much like the brush strokes of a painter and you can as easily learn as much from them. It’s like holding the original artist’s hand as you draw. A fascinating process.

Here is my newest pen and ink exercise. A knight copied from Howard Pyle’s “Otto of the Silver Hand” (Dover Books). I have shown you my progress in four pieces. The final piece is approximately 6.5” x 4” clearly much smaller than Pyle’s original piece. If I had chosen to work bigger, as he had, I would have been able to be more accurate in many of the smaller marks. All the same, I did my best with it and think it turned out pretty well. These drawings were created with a Namiki Falcon on Stillman and Birn Epsilon paper with Noodler's Bulletproof Black ink and a Superfine Zebra Disposable Brush pen.

Why We Copy

Copy of Table of Contents Illustration (partial) from
"The Story of King Arthur and His Knights" by Howard Pyle

Back in graduate school, I came into conflict with myself over the concept of copying from the Masters. There was a great feeling in the late 1980’s that “copying” was not cool. Of course, in hindsight, seriously listening to the rantings of other early twenty-somethings seems incredibly silly. Students of Art have been learning from works of those who have gone before them from time immemorial. I’m still not certain what the movement against it was in the late ‘80’s. Something societal, I’m sure. But whatever it was became so deeply ingrained in me that as it’s taken a very long time to feel OK about copying to learn. Certainly, I would never copy anything in order to sell it. But there are invaluable lessons to be learned from master artists. Through copying, one can learn much about what they discovered in their artistic journeys.

Yesterday, I wrote about my need to have some of my favorite illustrators close at hand in order to study their works. As I am currently in a phase of further learning with pen & ink, studying the works of Golden Age Illustrators from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries seems very appropriate. Before color reproductions were cheap and easy to reproduce for publications, people relied of high quality pen & ink artwork to tell their stories. Howard Pyle is one of my favorite Illustrators from this time period. His pen and ink technique is exquisite and his drawings fanciful but also incredibly accurate. Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights,” is one of my favorites. Although my copy is a bit dog-eared and charcoal-smudged, I wouldn’t part with it for the world. Both the story and the illustrations are wonderful.

P.S. For any that might be interested, my drawing was done with a Noodler's Flex pen and Noodler's Lexington Grey ink on a Bee Paper "Pen Sketcher's" pad.

On Books

A selection of books looking for a bookshelf

After much grimacing, I realized today that I was going to have to get into the boxes in the garage and excavate some books. Now before I go any further I should state for the record that Matt and I are huge bibliophiles. Also, that our rather large book collection requires many, many bookshelves which we are having a devil of a time finding locations for in the new house. Ironically the new place is about the same size as the old place where we had plenty of room for all the books. I don’t understand why but the new house seems just the wrong shape to have enough spots for all our bookcases.

When we first moved in we got out the “critical” book sections and found homes for those. These included my art studio reference, business, fiction, poetry, horses, and some children’s books. The manga (except for two rather sad and dog-eared copies of Immortal Rain) are all in boxes in our bedroom closet. The cookbooks are in boxes in the Family Room waiting for a bookshelf to be painted Plum. The new age books are in the bedroom, I think…

Meanwhile History, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Fine Art, Children’s, and Massage are still waiting to find homes. In utter frustration I have told Matt that we’re going to have to finish the basement in order to create a proper library!

In the meantime, I needed to have some illustrators near to hand to study. So up came Arthur Rackham, Winsor McCay, NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Beatrix Potter, Brian Froud, Charles Vess, Michael Kaluta, James Gurney, Mac Raboy, and a variety of Japanese manga and game artists. (I have still not been able to locate Leyendecker... *grump*)

I feel better now…I truly do. Now, if I could only figure out where to put them!