Integrating Sculpture Materials in Drawing
March 6, 2008
by Eric Brown
Artists, dating back to the time of the cave drawings at Lascaux, have consistently looked for new materials to work with and to produce art with. Today is no different. Artists are always (or should be) looking for new media to work with or a new way to use that media and implement other media with it. It has certainly become an age of Mixed Media. It’s part of why Picasso is considered, by some, the most influential artist in history.
A Trip Back In Time
The caves of Lascaux are located in France and are some of the oldest known examples of art. They were created by using pigment placed in a hollow reed that was blown onto the cave wall.
Throughout history evidence can be seen of artists looking for new media to work in. Take for example the invention of oil paints. Artists were tired of using things like tempera (where pigment is mixed in egg). Tempera is extremely difficult to work with due to the rapid drying times.
Even as recently as Picasso with his “Bull’s Head” piece, where he took the seat and handlebars of an old bicycle and put them together to form a bull’s head. This was innovation, the likes of which had never been seen before.
Today
So with so much innovation, new ideas and working methods discovered over hundreds of years, how do you come up with something new?
Art is such a saturated field that it can be impossible to get any recognition regardless of your talent or body of work. So artists today need to really think about being innovative. Most of what can be done with existing media individually, already has been done. To combat this, one needs to start thinking about incorporating the use of a variety of media in one particular piece.
Seeing the Idea in Use
A great example of what I am talking about would be to start using sculpture materials in drawing. I have been actively working on a series I have titled “Visual Science” that has begun to incorporate a wide range of materials from fiberglass screening to aluminum foil to actually drawing right on powder-coated aluminum sheets. See more of “Visual Science” here.
The drawing on the left is titled “Acceleration.” I began this drawing on a piece of powder-coated aluminum. Starting out with charcoal I began to blacken in much of the area of the drawing. I then added white paint which contains metal shavings that will rust with time, providing color and a changing, transitioning appearance.
This also adds a 3D texture to the surface which allows the artist to stray away from the idea of a flat plane for drawing. Now you can work in depth too. From there I worked back and forth with the paint mixture, charcoal, and graphite. I finished the drawing by taking a wood screw and scratching into the surface of the drawing, giving a reflective quality to tease the light. This has allowed me to create a piece that isn’t just the illusion of 3D space, it actually is 3D. It has taken the drawing into a whole new plane of existence where it now fights between being a drawing and being a sculpture.
This is a just one small example of using this idea in practice. I am currently beginning a new series of portrait work in which the drawing itself will be done entirely of small blocks of stained or painted wood. Stay tuned for step-by-step articles covering the process.
Using materials other than just standard drawing materials opens up your world to new creativity. You can begin to see art in a variety of places where you never did before and increase your ability to produce quality art that competes with the pros. So experiment, look to sculptural materials or other items to add into your drawing to give them life and a purpose of their own.
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