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“I saw only the village street, which is so familiar to me that I could walk down it blindfolded if I had a stick. A blind man died a few years back. Blind from birth, he could walk down to the village from the hamlet where he lived four kilometers away. The bees he kept gave more honey than any others in the village. And he axed his own wood on a chopping block, without ever cutting his hand.
At 11 A.M. it was sunny with a blue sky. The few white clouds were moving fast above the mountains. A north wind.
I saw the village street at that moment, as seen from the future. What I was seeing had become the distant past. This transformation was calm, so calm that it resembled a stillness.”
― And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos
At 11 A.M. it was sunny with a blue sky. The few white clouds were moving fast above the mountains. A north wind.
I saw the village street at that moment, as seen from the future. What I was seeing had become the distant past. This transformation was calm, so calm that it resembled a stillness.”
― And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos
“Where the real trouble comes in is where to make a start and where to leave off. Everything depends upon a good beginning. When planning our general composition we must feel our way with long lines, seeing first only the big and fundamental things and arriving at the necessary detail last, never forgetting the darkest accents in the subject, which should be among the first objects to note. Our touch should be free and suggestive, and this can come only from knowledge and the correct pressure of the pencil, held as I have explained. Every subject is good if we render our impressions of it clearly and strongly. The slightest sketch can be strong if it suggests the artist’s emotions to others, and the strongest drawing weak if it leaves them cold.”
― The Technique of Pencil Drawing
― The Technique of Pencil Drawing
“Fill in the shapes with the right tones and the form takes care of itself.”
― Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
― Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
“I seriously ask myself, What is the meaning of all this? Why raise questions, throw lights, or see shadows? Wouldn't it be better if I buried my tears in the sand on a seashore in utter solitude? But I never cried, because my tears have always turned into thoughts. And my thoughts are as bitter as tears.”
― On the Heights of Despair
― On the Heights of Despair
“Simplicity, balance, character, direction and relation of the limbs to each other, with their proportions and general symmetry of the whole, must be apprehended in a flash and put down in long lines, without lingering on less important details of form, for there is little time to hesitate in making a ten-minutes sketch. The quicker we draw, the better, so long as we can keep up the tension of our eyes, brain and hand all working together at the same time. The moment one of these three faculties gets out of gear or tired, the vitality of the drawing is lost. An intelligent model in a good pose inspires us enormously to produce an artistic and living drawing. A drawing done in a few minutes, in a red-hot fever of excitement and with concentrated observation, following the contour of the form from start to finish, is far more living than the often elaborated drawings of a cataleptic, relaxed figure, dumped upon the traditional throne, so often seen in art schools ; for the essence of life figure drawing lies in the outline. There is no short cut, no royal road to excellence : the only way is by persistent study and cultivation of visual memory.”
― The Technique of Pencil Drawing
― The Technique of Pencil Drawing
Nhan’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Nhan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
956 books
|
25 friends
2,138 books
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226 friends
66 books
|
330 friends
1 book
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315 friends
2 books
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10 friends
1 book
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55 friends
5 books
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42 friends
2 books
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15 friends
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