Creative Pencil Drawing

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CREATIVE PENCIL DRAWING

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TD BEACON

CREATIVE

PENCIL

DRAWING

Paul Hogarth

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WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS, New

York

INC,

© MCMLXrv by WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS, INC., New York, New York AH

rights reserved.

No

part of the contents of this book

without the written permission of the publishers. Printed in the U.S.A. Library of Congress Catalog Card

Number: 64-14762

may be reproduced

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I

was

and

greatly encouraged

it

is

to her that the

and helped book

is

in the writing of this

book by

my

wife, Patricia,

affectionately dedicated.

Donald Holden

Special thanks are also due to

was and whose tactful coaxing made

me

finish the

of Watson-Guptill,

book over

whose idea

a sustained

and

it

inten-

sive period of traveling.

Special appreciation I

am no

is

due

also

to

my

Ronald

friend,

New

and Company, London; Doubleday and Company, ciates,

New

York; The Macmillan Company,

Oxford University and Sons,

New

Searle, for his introduction.

indebted to the Hutchinson Publishing Group, London; Cassell

less

Press,

New

York; Bernard Geis Asso-

York; Penguin Books, England;

England; Lawrence and Wishart, London; Thomas Nelson

York; The Limited Editions Club,

New

York; Denis Dobson,

London; Wydawnictwo Artystczno-Graficzne, Warsaw; the Life; the

London Sunday Times;

Hotel, Dublin,

all

of

whom

the

ACA

have allowed

Gallery,

me

New

editors of

Ltd.,

Fortune and

York; and the Shelbourne

to include

drawings either

and loan

of photographs,

in their

possession or before publication.

For friendly also like to

my literary

assistance, valuable information,

thank Miss Estelle Mandel, agent in the United

my

art

Publishing Group; and certainly not

The in

my

Chapter

least,

Hugh

Deirdre

I

should

York; Hope Leresche,

art director of Life;

Charles

Williamson of the Hutchinson

Amsden

for her admirably con-

2.

owner's permission to reproduce works not in

publisher's possession,

New

Kingdom; Bernard Quint,

Rosner; Hans Schmoller of Penguin Books;

cise illustrations for

agent in

is

gratefully

acknowledged

my

possession, or

works not

after each caption.

PAUL HOGARTH East Berg holt, England April, i()64

BOOKS BY PAUL HOGARTH

Draivings of Foland

Looking Sons of

at

China

Adam

{published in Great Britain as People Like Us)

Brendan Behan's Island (with Brendan Behan) Brendan Behan's

New York

{with Brendan Behan)

CONTENTS

Introduction, p I

.

Learning by Experience

2.

•

Developing a Personal Vision

MATERIALS AND TOOLS FOR DRAWING Begin with Simple Equipment Papers

5.

n

THE ART OF PENCIL DRAWING

•

Sketchbooks

•

•

23

Pencils, Crayons,

Fixatives

•

Erasers

and Other Tools

•

General Equipment

•

PENCIL TECHNIQUES

31

Learning Pencil Techniques

Drawings

•

•

Improvised Drawings

Drawing for Reproduction

•

Planned

Line Reproduction

•

•

Halftone Reproduction

4.

DRAWING LANDSCAPE The

Creative Process

While You Can

•

•

4^ Planning a Drawing

Recomposing Nature

•

Seize

•

Your Subject

Technique of Direct

Drawing Outdoors

5.

DRAWING ARCHITECTURE AND THE CITY • Discovering A City''s Character Planning Drawing Buildings

•

The

6s Your Drawings

Influence of an Audience

•

6.

DRAWING PEOPLE First Portraits

89

Getting People to Pose

•

Drawing Portraits in Industry

7.

•

Drawing

•

Planning a Portrait

Celebrities

•

and Personalities

PICTORIAL JOURNALISM

I2p

Masters of Pictorial Journalism

Drawing Industry

aiid

Pla7mi7ig Industrial •

Learning to

People

Drawings

Draw

•

A

Revival of Pictorial Journalism

Work

at

The

in Public

Constructing a Picture Story

Index, /57

•

•

•

•

•

Working Under Pressure • Abroad • Drawing Events

Artist

Learning to

The Goals

Draw

in Secret

•

of Pictorial Journalism

INTRODUCTION

X HAT

Hogarth one of in

—the great 8th Century English painter, William —who was not exactly consistent on record thoughts,

OTHER Hogarth

in his

his

human

the

1

sweeping moments,

as saying that

nature to interpose a sketchbook between himself and

power

to represent

so easily, and with so

from nature

what he saw with more or little

we

are not all

rare ability to store in the

less

life.

Besides,

accuracy came to him

conscious learning, that he regarded drawing

as scarcely distinguishable

Unfortunately,

in

is

he was too keenly interested

from copying the work of other men.

William Hogarths, and have not that

mind most of what the eye

selects.

Happily, he

did not entirely believe in following these dogmatic statements; nor did a

thousand richer

artists

before and after him.

and more fascinating for

The

art collections of the

world are

it.

Everyone has drawn and explored with a pencil or a crayon from the

moment and so

it

it

was placed

in his childish

has been since the

fist.

A

child draws before

Caveman doodled

his first

it

writes,

magical sign on the

nearest rock with a charcoal ember.

There are few draftsmen today so well qualified to speak authoritatively

"from the

field" as

it

were, than Paul Hogarth. Battle-scarred and

articulate,

experienced and dedicated, he earned his knowledge and mastery

medium

of the

the hard, probing way.

Paul Hogarth and

we made

war,

tered cities

I

have known each other a long time. Soon after the

people.

We often

gathered a lot of material on these

more important,

The

on

lines

man caught on

a little

few

trips, quite a

more understanding of human

a face say

and what

fleas,

is

something to everyone. But the attitude of the

subject bargained for.

before your eyes into a personal

—

all

these

The simple

comment and

want

to be

on record before a

to be put

grinning, bantering press of public nuisances

more than the

We

nature.

the hop, going about his business; the anxiety to

good model; the self-important stance

deal

side by side in shat-

shared the same models in the

usually under the inevitable crush of a shaggy Balkan crowd.

street,

a

working

a couple of journeys together,

among hungry

tell

moment

the

one a great

sketch turns swiftly is

uniquely

pinned down.

William Hogarth did not mean

mount

that

drawing from nature was

most boring kind.

to plagiarism of the

He

expressed way, that slavish recording was a waste of time. select,

but the brain must revaluate.

the eye,

down through

point-of-view

make

the

artist.

Paul Hogarth communicates. takes his

work

A

is

technician

is

all is

Thought and

He

is

the artist

a

merely a technician.

great pleasure in drawing, and that

who

seriously, but he does not let

himself, which after

The eye may

drawing does not dribble through

the fingers, and out onto the paper.

But, thank heaven, there

He

A

tanta-

meant, in his badly

it

is

is

what

also the enthusiast.

rule him.

And

he enjoys

one of the prime reasons for wanting to draw

at all.

Rules are there to be broken; materials are there to be experimented

with and dominated; ideas are everywhere to be snatched from the

air

and

pinned onto paper.

Whatever you do, wherever you go, there draw.

You

Who

will always be something to

only need three things: a pencil, a notebook, and your head. better than Paul

Shakespeare says:

Go

Hogarth to

tell

you how

best to use them.

to!

RONALD SEARLE Paris,

10

1^64

As

Art begins ivhej? a man ivisbes to inwiortalize the most vivid moment he has ever lived. ARTHUR SYMONS

1 THE ART OF PENCIL DRAWING

If anyone asked artists

would:

If pressed, I

alone.

I

project.

was I

I

me why

do not

I

became

really

might add that restless in

wanted

my

know, except I

there

is

if

you asked me how

much

draw the world

I

might answer

I

as

most

always wanted to be one.

studio and wanted an audience to which

to get out into the

a simple answer:

seeing as

that

I

could not work as painters do, completely

called the "terrible itch for the

But

a draftsman,

world and draw.

I

I

could

had what Gauguin

unknown." equipped myself to be a draftsman,

I

think

I

equipped myself chiefly by moving around and

of the world as

I

possibly could. In doing so,

I

learned to

at large.

Learning by experience At

art school,

however,

I

soon discovered that the techniques

I

needed were

not taught. Art teachers can pass judgment only on what they themselves

know. This knowledge

is

usually limited in scope, as too few teachers are

13

practicing artists. So

I set

myself the task of becoming a draftsman by

first

hand experience.

The an

pursuit of experience was also a search for

artist in

many

For many years

directions.

than a committed observer, called upon to

Only

in recent years

arouse.

And

have

as the years

felt

this

myself to be

down

set

And

can take

more vulnerable

by, the

I

more

little

the scene before me.

also reproduced the feelings the scene

I

go

I

self.

become:

my

might

feelings

are intensified.

Ben Shahn

may, he

It

to provocation, being compelled by

Developing a personal I

would add

from something stronger than stimu-

defines art as arising

lation or even inspiration.

we have

that

said, take fire

from something

closer

life.

visiofi

to express ourselves in order to assert our per-

sonalities, to establish a relationship

with ourselves.

We can then turn to life

to record our impressions; to interpret our feelings; to establish intellectual

concepts.

My own

struggles to externalize various hopes and fears, frustra-

and admirations, can be found

tions

For many reasons, therefore, are merely

it

drawings throughout

book.

this

could be said that the majority of artists

searching to evolve a means of understanding.

have found pencil drawing especially suitable for the development

I

of

men and women

in

my own

understanding, just as others gain understanding by painting or

making movies. on the

A

wide range of personal

style

and technique can be based

vast variety of combinations of charcoal, wax,

and graphite, both

in

black and color. This variety gives the pencil a remarkable flexibility and ease as a graphic

medium.

This book deals mainly with personal vision this

book

your

14

own

is

how

I

feel

about drawing and

formed. Although there are no rules to

will help

you

to build your

artistic vision, as

own

mastery of

all

this

how my

game,

I

hope

the pencil media,

well as your pleasure in drawing.

/^mAiTU^

-'X.-x

IN SLATTERY's BAR, DUBLIN, 1959 pencil media is shown here in

of

drawing.

Drawn with

on Abbey Mill

The this

a stick of natural

paper.

fB^u^

\

Spontaneity

rapidly-made

willow charcoal

From Brendan Behan's

Island,

1962. Courtesy, Hutchinson Publishing Group, London,

and Bernard Geis Associates,

New

York.

15

^

ARMENIAN PEASANTS,

USSR, 1957

The English Erivan from Moscow

Russia in 1957.

down ters I

to

and conducted

drew

Mount

i' Com-

^'

31

r

•>^' -jj-

DRAWINGS FOR by the

Little

Men

offset process, so

of drawing ink, charcoal.

I

I

These drawings were made for reproduction

could freely use concentrated or diluted washes

combined with

light

and heavy accents

in graphite

and

kept the drawings contrasty to ensure that reproduction would

not only be sharp, but that they would look strong on the actual printed page. Both were

5^

tesy,

drawn with 4B and 6B Eagle Charco pencils and

From Little Men by Louisa May The Macmillan Company, New York, 1963.

rubbed Chinese

stick ink.

diluted,

Alcott.

Cour-

i.

.&

m-

..'>/r'

BOOK JACKET lead, ink line.

40

This book jacket drawing shows use of Conte charcoal

brush work, pen line combined with Zipatone. Reproduced in

Courtesy, Oxford University Press, England, 1962.

a Penguin Book

Homage

3'-

to

Catalonia

ANOTHER BOOK JACKET

This poster-type design was drawn twice the

reproduction size in soft Hardtmuth charcoal lead on Ingres paper. Note the dispersed quality of the strokes, which enabled an excellent line plate to

be made. The scarf was drawn in diluted drawing ink with a brush.

Courtesy, Penguin Books, 1962.

41

ILLUSTRATION FROM

AN

EDITION OF THE Short

Stories of O.

Henry

This drawing was made with Conte Pierre Noir charcoal leads on Ingres

paper for reproduction by the line process (black and white, no grays). Courtesy,

The

Folio Society, London, I960.

4 DRAWING LANDSCAPE

IVIaking complete drawings outdoors, studies for completion indoors,

is

rather than

making outdoor

an informal and stimulating method of

working, for which the pencil media are especially suitable. Landscape drawing, in particular,

The

is

good way

a

to start.

bustle and pressure of the city are

are used to

working on

much too

location. In the city,

than two hours at a time; in the country, patiently

making

several drawings of the

I

I

same

may spend

the whole day

subject.

In the quiet of an orchard, a river bank, or the seashore, lack of tension to deepen

and

noise.

my whole

I

am on my own,

grasp of drawing;

I

I

The

I

welcome the

with enough peace and quiet

can relax and be

innate lyrical qualities in nature. Landscape drawing covery;

you

distracting until

can seldom work for more

is

moved by

the

a process of dis-

seek to intensify the eternal, rather than observe the ephemeral.

creative process

Sometimes the process

is

set off

by various associations, compounded of

images recalled from paintings or movies. Quite suddenly,

I

may be

con-

43

fronted with a scene in which a herd of hogs

led by a Circe-like girl

is

along the stone-walled lane of a ripening Mediterranean orchard. The scene invokes the heady atmosphere of a Victorian academy painting of classical myths, plus the ominous undertones of a Bergman movie.

completely possesses me;

know

I

I

must

set it

down on

Although mood and atmosphere are primary to

draw landscape

any country,

in

The atmosphere

paper.

factors

which move me

often forget these qualities

I

when

I

What emerges is an image in its own right, owing more to my natural surroundings the structure and detail landscape than to the transient associations of my subconscious

begin to draw.

—

the inherent character of

of the

—

mind.

drawmg

Planning a

Deciding what to draw and

The more time

I

how

can be as important as actually drawing.

can spend roaming around, the better.

I

drive or walk

around, absorbing impressions, making rough notes. These are immediate,

spontaneous reactions which might be developed ings

when

I

return to the same spot.

which have textural or dramatic

scribble a

growth against decay;

"must" or "very good" or

best time of day to return

notes are stimulated by elements

potentialities: trees against clear or

skies; crops or grass against stone; I

My

and draw

just plain

to

M

is

for the drawing,

La Calobra.

VG

—

"La Calobra."

a must!

clouded

against death.

"good" and

I

record the

{Left)

My

This compositional

notes read: "Rocks

—Road

Extraordinary volcanic formations. Late

afternoon light best."

LA CALOBRA, MALLORCA, 1963 (Right) like landscape contrasts tions.

I

The unquiet calm of

—

to

a lunar-

with the incised complexity of the rock forma-

used Blaisdell Speed-D-Point charcoal pencils

and hard

—

convey the variety of linear emphasis.

soft,

medium,

A 3B

Faber

more detailed drawing of the trees and grasses in the middle distance. From a forthcoming book on Mallorca with Robert Graves. Courtesy, Cassell and Company, London, and Doubleday and Company, New York. graphite pencil was used for the

4f^.-^m.f'i