Leonardo da Vinci, Drawing for a wing of a flying machine Leonardo considered whether humans might also be able to fly if the mechanics of a bird’s wing were re-created on a human scale
His drawing of a flying machine illustrates a concept that had never been considered in this way before
Drawing provided Leonardo with a way to express his ideas beyond what could be said in words
Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of the fetus in the womb
Drawings like this are rare because the Church banned all acts that desecrated the body, including dissection
Leonardo may have been allowed to record his observations because he practiced his drawing methodically and with great care
Some speculate that the Church was interested in Leonardo’s observations as possible evidence of how the human soul resides in the body
Raphael, The School of Athens Drawing in the Design Process
Raphael’s preliminary drawings allowed him to refine his ideas and perfect the image at a smaller scale
The artist began the painting process by creating a large drawing of the work
This design, called the cartoon, was perforated with small pinholes all along where the lines were drawn
It was then positioned on the wall where Raphael intended to paint the work, and powdered charcoal dust was forced through the small holes in the cartoon’s surface
The impression left behind would aid Raphael in drawing the image onto the wall
Ilka Gedö, Self-portrait
Used thick dark lines to imply darkness and thin light lines to suggest lightness
The dark value of the eye and wavy hair, where the pencil has been pressed hard, concentrates our attention on the artist’s face
Notice how softly the artist handles the graphite in the areas representing the skin compared with the hair or clothing
Gedö was a survivor of the Holocaust
This drawing records her gaunt features shortly after her internment
Birgit Megerle, Untitled
Megerle applies the colored pencil lightly, allowing the whiteness of the paper to dominate
These pale tones of color give the drawing a light overall appearance
Megerle’s highly regarded style communicates a sense of stillness
Raphael, Heads of the Virgin and Child
Because silverpoint has such a light value and is usually drawn with very thin lines, much of the white paper is exposed
Closely overlapping many parallel lines across each other creates the illusion of a darker value. This is called hatching
Artists use this technique to darken values and create the effect of shading
Käthe Kollwitz, Self-portrait in Profile to Left
In her self-portrait we feel a sense of energy from the way Kollwitz applies the charcoal
Although she renders her own face and hand realistically, in the space between we see the nervous energy connecting the eye to the hand
Kollwitz draws with a spontaneous burst of charcoal marks along the arm, in expressive contrast to the more considered areas of the head and hand
Léon Augustin Lhermitte, An Elderly Peasant Woman
Each line and blemish on this woman’s face has been carefully rendered
The charcoal’s dark value accentuates the contrast between the highlights in the face and the overall darkened tone of the work
Lhermitte has controlled charcoal’s inherent smudginess to offer an intimate view of the effects of aging
Michelangelo, Studies for the Libyan SibylDrawn using red chalk known as sanguine
Made in preparation for painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome
The artist’s study concentrates on the muscular definition of the back and on the face, shoulder, and hand, and gives repeated attention to the detail of the big toe
These details are essential to making this twisting pose convincing
Edgar Degas, The Tub
Degas is noted for pastel studies that stand as finished works of art
Degas lays down intermittent strokes of different color pastels
The charcoal-like softness of the material is used to blend the colors together, giving them a rich complexity and creating a variety of contrasting textures
Georges Seurat, Trees on the Bank of the Seine (study for La Grande Jatte)
Conté crayon drawing
Seurat designates the foreground by using darker values
He allows the color of the paper to be more dominant in areas he wants to recede into the distance
Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing
Rauschenberg created a new work of art by erasing a drawing by Willem de Kooning
De Kooning agreed to give Rauschenberg a drawing, understanding what the younger artist had in mind
But, in order to make it more difficult, de Kooning gave Rauschenberg a drawing made with charcoal, oil paint, pencil, and crayon
It took Rauschenberg nearly a month to erase it
Rauschenberg’s idea was to create a performed work of conceptual art and display the result
Vincent van Gogh, Sower with Setting Sun
Van Gogh uses a reed pen and brown ink
By changing the way he applies his pen strokes and by controlling their width, he creates an undulating, restless design
Van Gogh’s emphatic direction of line expresses the characteristic energy of his work
Wu Zhen, Leaf from an album of bamboo drawings This finely planned design contains carefully controlled brushstrokes as well as loose, freer ink applications
Because the artist uses only a few shapes, the arrangement of the bamboo leaves becomes like a series of letters in a word or sentence
Wu achieves the changing dark and light values by adding water to create a wash and lighten the ink
This work was intended as a model for Wu’s son to follow as he learned the art of brushwork from his father
Claude Lorrain, The Tiber from Monte Mario Looking South
Thoughtful brushstrokes give us a feeling of the great expanse of the Italian countryside
The wash that Lorrain uses gives a sense of depth by making the values of the foreground areas both the darkest and lightest of the whole drawing
Hishikawa Moronobu, Papermaking in Japan
This work depicts how the fibers are suspended in water and then scooped up into a flat mold with a screen at the bottom, so that the water can escape
The fibers are now bonded to each other enough to keep their shape when they are taken out
The sheet is then pressed and dried
Handmade papers are still manufactured this way in many countries, mostly from cotton fiber, although papers are also made of hemp, abaca, flax, and other plant fibers
Contour lines provide linear clues about the surface of an object
The outer profile and undulating surfaces of the figure in Woman Seated in an Armchair are depicted in a long continuous line
Matisse’s interest in economically defining a shape can be seen not only in his contour drawings but also in his “cutouts,” such as Icarus
Matisse described his cutouts as “drawing with scissors,” implying that to him there was no great difference between working with contour lines and paper cutouts