Since copying is such an integral part of learning to draw I thought I should repost this note, from the 2016 archive.
To copy or not to copy...that is the....
Thoughts on copying
Most of us, a one time or another, have been admonished not to copy. In its pejorative sense, the word copy implies plagiarism, or, putting forward something done by someone else and implying it is our own. That is not the kind of copying I advocate, rather, you should use copying (which I sometimes term Close Scrutiny) to learn. As anyone who has made copies of their favorite comic book character, or fantasy superhero will attest, you can learn how to draw your own fantasy figures by copying some examples. You are, in effect, building the conventional mental constructs (how to draw spiky hair, what Viking swords look like, the subtleties of dragon teeth) of these objects that you can then reproduce from memory. Some people are satisfied to learn only in a relatively narrow spectrum, building their mental constructs from fairly limited material. In this instance and I see it occasionally in my students, the drawings produced, though highly finished and capable of producing ooohs and aahhs from the untrained masses do little to further the artistic development of those in question. The point being, the process is sound; it is up to the individual to use it as a constructive learning tool that furthers their knowledge base. But this kind of narrow adherence to a particular style or technique brings up a common issue.
There is an old chestnut in which an art teacher claims, “if I teach you how to draw (or anyone teaches you, for that matter including copying) you will end up drawing like me (or them) and your personal artistic growth will have been stunted”. In the best case I think this is a misguided but heartfelt concern for the student, in the worst case I think it is a rationalization for the inadequate skill levels possessed by the teacher. If a student does not intend to become an artist but rather wants to develop personal skills of visual expression, then skill with any style is better than no skill at all!
If a student aspires to becoming an artist, whether in the applied or fine arts my experience has been that beyond developing professional skill they always want to also develop a personal style, after all self-expression is the initial impetus for becoming an artist in the first place! So a student that picks up on the personal quirks and approaches used by a teacher is just pausing to amass information on a much broader and longer journey of discovery in which they will copy many styles and try many approaches before homing in on their personal expressive idiom. A great percentage of that journey will happen, not in a classroom, but, will come from personal study and will take the form of copying from references, whether they be photographic, from life or from the works of other artists from whom they wish to learn. The artist’s own style will emerge as an amalgamation of all he or she have studied in the classroom, plus, in far greater measure, their own personal input which will rely heavily upon the learning approach of copying the work of others. .
If you have ten or twenty years along with the resources to attend drawing classes, you can improve incrementally and will probably eventually gain competence without ever having to make copies of other materials to aid in the process. But the reality of doing this is that you are relying to a substantial degree on observing your fellow students and on the finite knowledge capabilities of your instructors and this limited approach is going to take you a while. I don’t mean to denigrate the skills of your instructors, after all, I’m one of them! but missing the chance to actually see how masters of the craft did things will speed up your learning curve immeasurably. And, beyond that, it is unrealistic to suppose that you will be taking endless drawing courses – you must learn on your own, and copying is a major component of that process!
Carl Jackson, 2008
The best way to copy
Assuming we want to develop our knowledge (mental constructs) of things, then it makes sense to copy versions of those things we want to know more about. There are three main ways we could undertake this process.
1. We could set up the object (s) on our desk and draw from life, or
2. We could take a picture of the object (s), print it out, and then use that “flattened’ version to do our drawing. This would simplify our task as it would make space and size relationships more readily apparent. Lumped into this flattened out versions category would be magazine pictures, paintings, comic book illustrations, and so on; just about anything we can get some sort of picture of. But, let’s say we want to maximize the amount of knowledge we get from a copy. How about…
3. Copying a competent existing drawing of the object or objects we wish to develop knowledge of. Not only can you learn shape proportion and detail but also the kind of marks used (technique) to develop the drawing, (obviously when using this approach you are limited to the view of the object determined by the artist whose work you are copying).
There is no correct answer to “the best way to copy”. It, of course, depends on the draughtsman’s knowledge and skill level. But for beginning and intermediate level artists who are intent on improving their skills and knowledge, then I recommend copying existing work in the same or a similar medium.
I have a term I use called Close Scrutiny which I define as the careful copying of works that are pertinent to your area of interest. Most serious books on developing drawing skills advocate copying. It is not enough to simply look longingly at work we admire. We must “get into it.” If you force yourself to struggle to approximate the sorts of marks that are embodied in highly skilled work you will, inevitably, absorb portions of that dearly acquired knowledge. I feel the best way you can do this by trying to reproduce it in your own hand. If you wish to learn to play the guitar you wouldn’t just study chord diagrams in a manual; you would actually try to imitate and test these diagrams by working with the instrument, over, and over, and over again. And if the first few times you couldn’t get the fingering correct, you would persist until your fingers and hands, “did what you wanted them to.” You could probably learn to play the guitar without the manual and study of previous music, but it would be a much longer process, and if you tried to learn the guitar without practicing fingering, you would fail. In a like manner, you must train your hands and enhance your memories if you wish to improve drawing abilities.
When I was a student, in my rendering classes and mechanical drawing I was fine and did well because I could focus in (remember the 6 degree cone of focus?), but in the figure drawing classes there was that annoying 3D space and all that unfamiliar complex detail that I had no memorized conventions for, to contend with; I was lost. My drawings were never finished and the parts that were, always seemed distorted and incorrectly positioned. My first semester instructor was sympathetic but not that helpful, and I remember his rather unspecific suggestions that I “be looser” “draw faster” and “let it flow,” I was particularly distressed when he suggested I just “draw loose like Rembrandt,”. He didn’t know how to tell me what my problems were and although I improved, mainly because I was looking at other student’s drawings, my progress was frustratingly slow. ( Note: I realize now that this disconnect I was experiencing was due to my lack of understanding that I had to set up "relationships" before working on details See section on Relationships )
The next semester I started in the same funk though my new instructor was more helpful with his suggestions “Look at negative spaces” (if he had used the term gaps [under "Seeing" see "Objects and spaces are of equal importance"], I would have caught on a lot faster), “Get your proportions correct” and “look for the gesture”. Beyond that, my hand was beginning to make better marks. He suggested that I make some copies of some Master drawings and start looking at anatomy (At the time there was no specific course in human anatomy). Well, I was so balled up in my classroom inadequacies and with other courses that I didn’t pay much attention at the time. But I determined that I would stay in Providence that second summer and really work on my drawing. I recalled his suggestion that I copy some Master drawings, and I asked him what artists he suggested. He said, “Pontormo as a good place to start”, he also added that starting to build a personal art library and getting an anatomy book would be a good idea.
I found an old copy of an anatomy book by Jeno Barcsey in a used bookstore. The models in the book were strange looking, but the pencil renderings were spectacular. I wanted to be able to draw like that! Not knowing where else to start, I began to copy the illustrations in the anatomy book; at first the individual bones and later the muscles and muscle groups - copying them to learn about the shapes but also to learn his rendering style. It was one of those epiphanies I mentioned in the introduction when I realized that if I used my rendering capabilities to copy drawings I admired that I could really learn technique and anatomy at the same time! So I’m copying anatomy and I’m copying master drawings and I’m attending the open summer session figure drawing classes, and no one is telling me to draw faster or like Rembrandt! And this led to a couple of other discoveries. First of all, that the way anatomical details in the Master drawings were drawn, were conventions for drawing those same body parts when I got to the live figure sessions. Now It Was Beginning To Make Sense! Second, this stuff I was making copies of was beginning to be embedded in my memory – I was replacing my earlier inadequate memories with much more serviceable ones. To be sure, when I drew, these memories could dominate if I let them, but by regulating or balancing the use of the good memories with honest right-brain analysis of the current subject, I was on my way to competency. It was only years later, when I began teaching drawing myself, that I realized the richness of content one could acquire in just one copy, if it were undertaken with the correct approach.
In one seriously undertaken copy of a master drawing a student would be:
· learning anatomy along with
· conventions for anatomical parts (a knee from the front for example), or a method for suggesting foliage.
· The Masters shading technique and edge handling and line quality. Copying these subtleties of drawing are invaluable to building your own muscle memory and understanding of technique.
· The nuance of the Masters compositional structure, See the El Greco, Example .#80
· While improving the ability to use right side measuring technique and seeing of relationships; You are comparing copy and original side by side, and mistakes are easier to pick out than trying to compare a drawing to a live, 3D situation.
· Developing the habit of accuracy; of recognizing and correcting mistakes – The drawing doesn’t get up and move after twenty minutes plus the space is conveniently flat all at the same time!
I should note here that the struggles I recount are primarily with the human figure and anatomy, but are equally applicable to any genre whether it be landscape, still life or any other form when drawing from life or copying.
So, as you can see, improving Mental Constructs and training your hand to make better marks inevitably incorporates the development of Technique, which we will cover in more detail next.
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