I recently set a fairly simple (but demanding) drawing task for my new first years graphics students – an old black and white photograph from the Library of Congress archives, a sheet of tracing paper, and a set of fineliners – make a detailed tonal tracing using appropriate linework -hatching, stippling etc. As the project progressed, some made an excellent start whilst others floundered a bit – an expected response. As I encouraged them to start over and slow down, I began a tracing of my own to demonstrate some techniques. I selected a black and white image from a nearby photography book (the image is titled ‘Duma and friend’ by Simon Thorpe – check it out on his website in the B&W section) with a good range of textures and tones and began. And got sucked in…
And here is a scan of the finished drawing – click on it for a bigger view to see the details…
Many thanks to Simon for his permission to feature his original photograph.
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Oh , that’s good. Time spent, the human hand, bringing something more to the image – all the boxes are ticked. There is a van gogh sketch which nicely shows the different marks you can make with a nib… I’ll try and find it in the morn… T
Looks really good
Wow Chris . . . you da man! Such skill, sensitivity, expert use of medium – and poignant choice of original, too. You could call it ‘The elephant man’ (not that you need advice from me, mind . . .)
I’ve now had the bound copies of the book from Blurb – from The Netherlands. They had a very exciting ride here, via Brussels, and look terrific. Can I bring one on for you on Tues as a thank you?
Hi Penny, thankyou! I have tried to view your book many times – none of the links seemed to work – all pointing me towards the blurb site but saying that the book doesn’t exsist. I’ll look forward to seeing it!
PS I do like the almost calligraphic use of line – could almost be asemic script . . .