Favourite quotes about drawing and sketching

Tell me what's your favourite quote about drawing or sketching.

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and it will do you a world of good.
Cennino Cennini

I'm a lover of quotations and I'm trying to include some in the book I'm writing - however I want some really good ones!

Below are the quotations which are contenders for inclusion to date.  I'll add any of your suggestions which I particularly like into this list.  That's not to say they aren't all good - but I am trying to find the best ones!

[This list has now been updated with quotations from the suggestions and others I've subsequently found- please keep the suggestions coming. I've also changed the images to be ones relating to the artists quoted]

 

Dutch artists

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing."
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) Post Impressionist painter

"In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) Post Impressionist painter

 

French artists

"The first things to study are form and values. For me, these are the things that are the basics of what is serious in art.
Jean Baptiste Corot (1796-1875), French painter

“Faites des lignes. Faites beaucoup de lignes.” ("Draw lines - draw a lot of lines")
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - 1780 – 14 January 1867) French Neoclassical painter.
(This was his advice to a young Degas who had announced he wanted to become a painter)

 

Dancer Adjusting Her Slipper (1873) by Edgar Degas
Graphite heightened with black and white chalk on pink wove paper (now faded);
squared for transfer
Height: 330 mm (12.99 in). Width: 244 mm (9.61 in)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

"Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality."
Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) French artist

"Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see"
Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) French artist

Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.Georges Seurat (1859 - 1891) French Post Impressionist painter

L'Écho, study for Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathing Place, Asnières)
by Georges Seurat
Conté crayon on Michallet paper. 31.2 × 24 cm

 

"I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris a.k.a. as Le Corbusier (1887-1965) French architect 

"Drawing is putting a line (a)round an idea."
Henry Matisse (1869 - 1954) French artist 

"Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation."
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2004) French photographer 

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil"
Balthus (1908 - 2001) Polish-French modern artist 

 

Italian Artists

"You can never do too much drawing."
Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), Venetian painter

 

Spanish artists

“In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt."
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist

"Drawing is the honesty of the art. there is no possibility of cheating. it is either good or bad."
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) Spanish Surrealist Painter

 

Swiss artist

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk."
Paul Klee (1879 - 1940) German-Swiss artist

 

UK artists

"Drawing takes time. A line has time in it"
David Hockney (1937 - date) English artist

Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make.
David Hockney (1937 - date) English artist

 

Sketch of Henry Tonks (1918) by John Singer Sargent

USA artists

"You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh."
John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925) American artist

"Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint".
Arshile Gorky (1904- 1948) Armenian-American painter  

"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen"
Frederick Franck (1909 - 2006) Dutch American sculptor 

Royal Society of British Artists 2014 Exhibition: Call for Entries

This is a summary of the Call for Entries for the 297th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists. This will be held at the Mall Galleries between 5th and 15th March 2014.  Plus a commentary on the type of work which is typically selected for this exhibition.

The deadline for digital submission is the 2nd January 2014 and receiving days are 24-25 January 2014.

The Annual Exhibition exhibits the best of contemporary painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing sourced from member artists and through open submission.

Founded in 1823, the RBA seeks submissions of work displaying the highest standards of skill, expression and concept of draughtsmanship.

All quotations are from either the RBA or Mall Galleries websites. 

RBA Annual Exhibition 2013 - small works by Judith Gardner RBA NEAC and Barbara Richardson RBA

I'm trying to catch up with the Call for Entries for the Annual Exhibitions of the national art societies in the UK.  and will be posting more soon with respect to the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

What sort of artwork gets selected for this exhibition?

You have two big advantages when submitting work to the RBA due to the fact that the art society has embraced the scope offered by digital technology. This allows the Society to have digital information on view which is very helpful to both prospective entrants - and potential buyers!

You can see a virtual version of the exhibition on the RBA website of works in last year's exhibition on the RBA website. This provides:

• a reasonable feel for the type of artwork which gets selected for this exhibition.  
• information about which work by members sold in the exhibition and hence what the art collectors who come to this exhibition like.

You can also view the the RBA exhibition catalogue for the 2013 exhibition. This very usefully indicates the type of media of artwork exhibited (both members and non-members) and more importantly the prices of work selected for the exhibition.

Do please bear in mind that a number of the members are well established professional artists with a following and their prices will reflect this fact.

In addition, while both the above show you an image in isolation, if you take a look at my review of last year's exhibition - Review: Royal Society of British Artists - 296th Annual Exhibition you can get a much better sense of the size of the artwork selected for exhibition. I seem to recall the smaller works were selling better than the larger ones - particularly if they were of the quality of the ones by artists like Judith Gardner and Barbara Richardson (see image at top of the post)

I'm also including some images in this post 

Also note how multiple works from the same artist tend to be submitted in groups of works with similar or identical frames which hang well together.

This RBA states that accepts artwork about all subjects and in all media for the exhibition.

However, if you review the exhibition catalogue you will find that:

• Oil paintings completely dominate the exhibition. It is however slightly confusing on the website because the huge number of members' oil paintings rate four categories: oil, oil on canvas, oil on board and oil on paper!
• there is a respectable showing by the sculptors and printmakers across a range of media 
• there are few paintings in watercolour and mixed media
• there were no works in digital media or video which are both well established media for contemporary artwork

Thus the statement needs a subtext to clarify that the RBA only accepts paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture.

RBA 2013 - Images of monochrome works and fine art prints
The exhibition was very colourful last year - but it also included monochrome work

If you review the online exhibition of MEMBERS work you will see that figurative work, still life and landscapes predominate. There were just two abstract paintings (and I'd personally call them abstracted figurative paintings!) and three abstract sculptures

The Society exhibits leading artists who employ a sound knowledge and application of draughtsmanship as the basis of their work.

I would venture to suggest that the evidence of what gets exhibited suggests that those submitting are sticking to a fairly traditional agenda when it comes to media.  It's either that or the RBA selection panel comprises members who pick work in media they know and work in - which perhaps explains the dominance of oil paintings.

Overall, it's probably more accurate to say that the society accepts all media for an exhibition of paintings, drawings fine art prints and sculpture but it really likes oil paintings and artwork which is traditionally figurative and representational!

If you use the menu selection available on the digital version of last year's exhibition you can see just how many works by MEMBERS were selected in different genres and different media.  I find it confusing and suggest the categories be redrawn to make them much simpler (ie a few works do not make a category!)

You can also view a gallery of members work in alphabetical order which gives you a good sense of what this art society likes when it comes to admitting new members.

What can you enter - the details

BP Portrait Award 2014 - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries for the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2014 has been published - so it's time to write my very popular annual review of the entry process.

People who win prizes read this blog post! ;)

This post covers

• what's different this year - because I've spotted a few changes! 
• why this is a competition worth entering 
• how to get selected
• a review of the entry details for those who don't like small white print on a black background! 
• links to past posts about the BP Portrait Award and exhibition reviews on this blog

BP Portrait Award 2014 website
featuring Self-portrait by Ewan McClure, 2013

NOTE: All quotations are from the BP Portrait Award website. 

What's different in 2014

Paintings will be judged anonymously so should not be signed on the front. 

• Selection has always been anonymous. However  I think this 'no signature on the front' is a new requirement and it if it is then it's significant.  I have heard artists pass comment in the past about the fact that entries included the artists signature - and asking questions about how the competition could be realistically be considered to be anonymous. Maybe this is the response.
• The Third Prize has been reinstated and the  prize money has increased from £53,000 to £61,000 - see below for how this is divided up 
• The deadline to return the completed entry form online and pay the fees is Monday 3 February 2014. That's 10 days earlier than last year, so those who've entered before need to make they've got their 2014 calendars marked up with the date. There's also a reminder that you need to send by recorded delivery of you want proof of delivery.
• The rules now highlight that Self portraits and group portraits are permitted. Perhaps there has been confusion on this point? I certainly mentioned last year to the NPG that I thought it was a very great pity that there was no award for Group Portraits as it's difficult to pull off a good one and this really ought to be recognised. 

Why enter the BP Portrait Award?

Here are 10 reasons to enter this competition

1. It's one of the most prestigious art prizes in the world.  

I'm writing the book this week

Just to let you know that I'm writing the book this week (see I've been asked to write a book....). I've got a deadline to meet - hence the gaps in posting the last few days.

To all those artists who contacted me, I'll be writing very soon!

I think this week may see a few call for entries posts if I can fit them in....

Portrait of Ben
11" x 14", coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford Hot Press
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Who painted this? #54

Who painted this? #54

When I first came across this artist, in a book, I was amazed that I'd never heard of him before given his fame and the success that he enjoyed in his lifetime.

Next week I'll tell you where you can see some fine examples of his paintings in London.

Don't forget besides wanting the answers to all the usual questions (see below) I'd also like to hear about what you managed to find out about the artist and painting - and the best answer wins this week's challenge!

How to participate in "Who painted this? #54"

PLEASE make sure you read the rules before posting a comment - and ONLY POST ON THIS BLOG what you think is the answer.

Click this link to read THE RULES for participating in this challenge (this saves having to copy them out for each post!).

In short:

• use your brains not software to find the answer - search using words only on a database of images 
• leave your answer as a comment on this blog - do not leave the answer on Facebook! 
• if correct it will not be published until the next post - which provides the answer 
• if wrong it will be published 
• the winner - who gets a mention and a link on/from this blog - is NOT THIS WEEK the first person to give me a completely correct answer for ALL the things I want to know. It's the person who does all this AND provides the BEST answer (see above)

Who Painted This #53 - The Answer