A year back, I mentioned this book by Robert Beverly Hale (Drawing Lessons From The Great Masters). I’d read through it and was very impressed. But this time I’m not just reading, I’m even drawing the Masters’ works and really studying what Mr. Hale (an outstanding teacher) writes about them.

I know my results are not presentable, but the experience of concentrating on the Masterwork and attempting to see or feel what the artist was doing or where he (strangely enough, artists were all “he”s centuries ago) stresses a line (where one doesn’t actually exist … I mean, we’ve all heard this before: lines don’t exist, they are a technique to transport a change in light, orientation, colour, surface texture (in German: Oberflächenbeschaffenheit), form, and probably more to the audience) … where was I? … oh, yes, “Where he stresses a line …” Well, the experience is just really worth it, I feel a connection, I don’t mind if my result looks only similar to the Masters’, I’m pretty convinced something of the lesson will seek into my subconscious and improve my future Life Drawing results. Oh, yes, funnilly enough, these Masters’ works seem only to be of figures, they didn’t care much for drawing shoes, coffee perculators, bags of flour. Strange. But I don’t suppose there was much call for it back then.