Happy New Year 2020.
Can you tell the difference of “dessin(in French)“, “croquis(in French)“?
In English, both are the same noun, “drawing”.
Dessin is a charcoal/pencil drawing usually on paper, and also usually in monochrome shading/modeling.
Croquis is a quick sketch of live models usually no shading.
Dessin is a copy?
“Dessin” is not just a copy of the object in front of you.
It is an drawing exercise to realize the light and the air you are in through the objects.
(“The air” does not mean the emotional status. It means the atmosphere on Earth. )
At first I could not understand the meaning, especially the air.
I thought we cannot see the air so it is impossible to draw it. But it is not true. We can see the air.
When you understand the meaning, you also understand it is not good to do drawing exercise with photo images.
Because you cannot feel the air through photos. In my experience, it is also not so good to grasp the light.
Photo images cannot show the slight difference of the light volume and the thickness of the object.
(Making WORKS with photo images is OK because it is not an exercise. )
This is a drawing as a complete work
This is a drawing for my exercise
The light and the air
Some people ask me to comment their monochrome drawings for their exercise. Some of their drawings are good, others not so good.
However, the important thing for me is whether they are trying to show the 2 points or not, the light and the air.
I’m afraid most of the art learners misunderstand it.
Case 1 The light
if you try to show the light you are in, you should find the light from where to where.
Please image a small light is on in a dark studio. There are some objects on a table. The light spreads radially.
You understand the object near the light sauce is lighter than the one far from the sauce.
However, a lot of art learners do not distinguish and show the tone differences of an orange by the light and an apple far from the light.
This problem will be remarkable in the figure drawing situation.
If the sun light comes from the skylight on the ceiling, the head of the live model standing in front of you is lighter than his/her legs.
If he/she raises up his/her arms over their heads, the arms should be lighter than his/her heads and legs.
However, most of the art learners draw both legs and heads/arms in the same tone.
Case 2 The air
let me take a landscape as an example.
Please look at houses/hills/trees/ships nearby from the window of your house.
Then please also look at the similar objects in the distance and compare them. Of course the ones in the distance are not clearer than the ones nearby.
Why? Because of your near eyesight? The answer is no.
The air between you and the objects has the air, water vapor and dust. It is like a fog. The fog layer between you and the objects gets thicker and thicker with increasing distance.
That’s why mountains in the distance on the earth is blur.
Please check the horizon on the moon on a video site.It is very clear because there is no air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0xhkNvLpVE
There is the same phenomena, the layer of the gas, even in the small studios but many art leaners do not distinguish the clearness of the model in the foreground and the trees in the background.
Please check the historical masterpieces one more time. The artists pay attention to show the differences with various techniques.
