a master at work

[egypturnash]

kamenkyote is in town; today I rendezvoused with him and eselgeist in Harvard Square. We talked and stuff. A bit of doodling but not much.

One thing that came up in conversation was a video of a very aged Al Hirschfeld working on a drawing. As it so happened, I just ran into it. Or perhaps an edited-down version; this seems abbreviated from what was described.

What I find fascinating is how meticulous his drawing is - both the pencils and the inks. He's got a tentative, sketchy hand. I started with that but I got trained out of it; I always really thought that a style as calligraphic as his would involve a lot of... I dunno. Slashing out the pencils, then sitting there contemplating the paper for a moment now and then in between rapid lines drawn with the whole body. Is it that he was an old, old man, whose body simply couldn't do this any more? Or did he always draw like that? I may never know, unless I encounter some of his younger work in person so I can put my nose a half-inch from the paper and see the character of his lines. (I do this whenever I run into an original from a favorite artist. You can see so much you can't see at the 50-25% it's shot down to for reproduction.)

Comments

If you want to know what I'm doing....

[adequatemagic.livejournal.com]

"... I haven't any idea."

I think that's telling. It's been said that there are stages in the development of an artist and his art:

* Doesn't know anything
* Knows Something
* Knows Everything
* Doesn't know anything

I've seen a few of his prints 'full size' at galleries here and there. Those he rendered entirely in pen do have that ever-so-sleight scratchiness to it. Those he finished out with a brush do not.

Notice how when he was detailing out the fine lines he did so bit by bit, but the amazing confidence and sweep of his broader brush strokes. 'Mazing.

[luoto.livejournal.com]

Impressive work from a 99-years old! Very steady hands.
I also belived that an artist like him would work like an oriental calligrapher with fast, dancing brush-strokes across the paper. But sketching is important, even for a master.
It was interesting to see this!

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

It's true, you can almost imagine hims slashing at a drawing like Zoro, this isn't what I thought he would look like at work, but... you know, when your joints aren't working anymore one imagines that ones work will change.

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

I got train out of the mad sketchy stylz, too. I, too am surprised - it's not like it's just bad form, all those lines are fucking confusing. It's like, "wait, which line am I supposed to ink?" I recently went to bloking pencils out in 2H and finishing them in HB so I can tell which lines are the right ones.