Sunday 8 February 2015

Repetition



Repetition is the fourth of five principles of composition identified by Arthur Wesley Dow in Chapter 3 of Composition.


The first three principles are:


Dow defines Repetition as:
"The production of beauty by repeating the same lines in rhythmical order."
He identifies repetition as the basis of all music and poetry, but stresses that repetition by itself does not create beauty:
"A mere row of things has no art-value. Railroads, fences, blocks of buildings and all bad patterns are like doggerel rhyme examples of repetition without art."


The chapter contains exercises based on creating repetition in borders and surface patterns.  I gave them up last April because the hand position required to hold the Japanese brush upright was stressing my forearm, but I restarted them a few weeks ago. I am experimenting with different hand positions, but I don’t enjoy using the brushes and this has led me to question the benefit of the assignments and whether completing the book is a good use of time.

Happily, Paul Foxton published a post about Repetition this week that has encouraged me to persevere (see Hidden Patterns: How to design pictures like Veronese). 



Sunday 1 February 2015

January 2015 Sketches

A Special Dog Walking Bag
29 January 2015
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

So far, I have stuck with the plan to draw on every day in 2015. There are too many artists to ignore that identify drawing each day as being the key to improving.

Plug It In
1 January 2015
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

I've continued with the focus on accuracy from last month (see December Sketches), but I've started to reintroduce modelling into the drawings.

Kirsty Elson Driftwood House
20 January 2015
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

Marc Taro Holmes (Citizen Sketcher) recommends 0.7 mm propelling pencils as his graphite drawing tool of choice. He prefers them to normal pencils because they eliminate the mess and hassle of sharpening. I have been using 3 mm mechanical pencils with 3B and 6B leads. They are versatile, but they still need sharpening and are probably messier than conventional pencils. So, I've switched to a 0.7 mm propelling pencil and I love it. The 0.7 mm leads are much sturdier than the normal 0.5 mm leads - I haven't had one break yet. The pencil came loaded with HB leads which are bit hard and pale, but I have some B leads which I am looking forward to trying.

Mestle and Portar
10 January 2015
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

It is great to find things that work for you. This month I've also switched from case bound sketch books to wire bound sketch books. Richard E. Scott (Sketching From Square One) recommends them because they are easier to keep open and lay flat.

Mike Lythgoe Mackerel
28 January 2015
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

The two sculptures are both presents from Elaine. The driftwood house is by Kirsty Elson and the shoal of mackerel is by Mike Lythgoe.