{"id":1101,"date":"2010-02-07T22:08:16","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T03:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2014-12-15T00:21:51","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T05:21:51","slug":"rhythmic-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/07\/rhythmic-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhythmic Line"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Modern Dance, 2008, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

A sense of rhythm is as central to the art of drawing as it is to music.\u00a0 It is the movement of the artist’s hand that gives a drawing its sense of movement and life.\u00a0 Strokes that are fluid and responsive imbue a sketch with vitality.<\/p>\n

I run a session at Spring Studio<\/a> in Manhattan, where beginners struggling to get the hang of drawing from life work alongside accomplished artists who have logged many thousands of hours at the drawing board.\u00a0 If you look at people at work, you’ll notice that most beginners draw tentatively.\u00a0 They measure a lot and try to use intellectual knowledge to figure out what they’re seeing before they make their marks.\u00a0 There is no rhythm or flow to their lines.\u00a0 The parts of the body are drawn separately and never quite seem to integrate into a lifelike figure.\u00a0 But watch a really good artist and you’ll see that the hand is in motion most of the time, moving with the sureness and lightness of a conductor’s baton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lounging Ryan, 2008, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

The contours of the body are all curves of various kinds.\u00a0 In drawing, these curves are translated into movements of the hand.\u00a0 I allow my perception to flow along the contours like a skier gliding along the grooves and rises of a snow surface.\u00a0 The drawing hand moves at a fairly constant pace, and those contours become rhythmic gestures traced onto the paper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Natural, 2010, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

In quick drawing, I almost never do any kind of measurement to determine proportions.\u00a0 If the flow of movement is constant, proportions fall into place because of a sense of rhythm in the changes of direction.\u00a0 The movement of the hand continues even when the pencil or brush is lifted from the paper, so that every rounded form is carried through from the front to the back, or from one side to the other.\u00a0 Thus even an unshaded line drawing is given a sense of solidity and connection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Arch, 2010, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

In longer, more finished drawings, I do measure proportional and angular relationships and make corrections, but only after I’ve first captured the feeling of the pose through this rhythmic tracing of contours.\u00a0 Proportions rigidly applied can crush the life out of a sketch, while giving priority to the flow and connection of forms can make a drawing communicate living energy even if the proportions are pretty far off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Clasped Hands on Hip, 2008, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Attitude, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

Complex shapes like hands, or complex poses that are hard to analyze in terms of straight lines, become simpler when treated as a continuous flow of curved shapes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hands, 2010, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Writhe, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

The following sketches were done at Cross Pollination at Green Space Studio<\/a>, a monthly event that offers the opportunity to draw while dancers warm up and move freely in the studio.\u00a0 The dancers aren’t posing – even when they’re stretching or relaxing, they don’t stay in one position for more than a few seconds at a time.\u00a0 The strokes I make are rough gestures, more often responding to memories of fleeting perceptions rather than the simultaneous perceiving and drawing I do in a life drawing session with timed poses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dancers Stretching, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Three Moving Figures, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Three Resting Figures, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Improvised Movement, 2008, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

And here are two large-scale drawings – the first is 30″ x 48″ (76 x 122 cm) and the second is 48″ x 60″ (122 x 152 cm) – that take rhythmic flowing contours beyond the simplicity of the quick sketch:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Nyx, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Star, 2008, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

If you like the movement drawings from Cross Pollination, check out this post<\/a> for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sense of rhythm is as central to the art of drawing as it is to music.\u00a0 It is the movement of the artist’s hand that gives a drawing its sense of movement and life.\u00a0 Strokes that are fluid and responsive imbue a sketch with vitality. I run a session at Spring Studio in Manhattan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[228,266],"tags":[133,19,169,269,17,41,270,44,96,22],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-figure-drawing-energy","category-top-ten","tag-art-modeling","tag-crayons","tag-cross-pollination","tag-dance","tag-figures","tag-ink-brush","tag-movement-drawing","tag-nudes","tag-sketch","tag-technique"],"yoast_head":"\nRhythmic Line - DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/07\/rhythmic-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rhythmic Line - DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A sense of rhythm is as central to the art of drawing as it is to music.\u00a0 It is the movement of the artist’s hand that gives a drawing its sense of movement and life.\u00a0 Strokes that are fluid and responsive imbue a sketch with vitality. 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