Eye Candy for today: Ivan Shishkin graphite drawing

Comments

4 responses to “Eye Candy for today: Ivan Shishkin graphite drawing”

1. 

   James Gurney

   November 8, 2018

   It’s fascinating to see how Shishkin developed a form of nervous handwriting to simulate the rhythms of overlapping leaves and branches in a forest. He suggests the emergent bundles of leaves catching the light, and the background textures between those bundles and branches. He draws the trunks and branches in interrupted segments as they pass behind clumps of leaves. It’s all subtractive, like a watercolor, with perhaps a few touches of erasures. But the marks never seem automatic or self-indulgent or detached from careful observation.
   1. 

      Charley Parker

      November 8, 2018

      Thanks, James, for insightful analysis. I’ve gone back into the drawing now (and some others) with a different appreciation.

      Your comment about “nervous handwriting” and the appearance of those marks reminded me of of the zig-zag notation for foliage in some of Fragonard’s drawings.
2. 

   Ælle

   November 11, 2018

   In general I ‘expect’ his paintings to measure about 32.5 x 46.5 cm (12³/₄ x 18¹/₄ inches) in dimensions.
   Who’d know best?
3. 

   Ælle

   November 12, 2018

   It was only in the first half of the 19th century that pencil drawing began to be regarded as equal to other art forms. In the romantic era, with its focus on people’s inner worlds and aspirations, and changes in their mood, pencil became an ideal means of communication.
   Black chalk, called in Russia “Italian pencil” because it was brought from Italy, replaced silver and lead pencils.

   Excerpt copied from an art magazine.

   Its10th year celebration in 2013 with a kind message from Irina Lebedeva.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkMpwKTwtA