ROBERT FAWCETT, IN LINE AND TONE

Here is another spot illustration by illustrator Robert Fawcett, this time a small ink drawing of his friend Austin Briggs who was giving a slide show presentation:

 

Despite the sedentary subject matter, close ups of the original reveal a vigorous knife fight:  


Pausing over details, we begin to appreciate the extraordinary variety of Fawcett's marks on paper :




Over the last few days we have focused on Fawcett's ink work, but before we move on to different topics, here is one of Fawcett's pencil drawings for a different perspective:


This life drawing was included in Fawcett's book, The Art of Drawing but by looking at the original we can see that Fawcett (who was color blind) supplemented his drawing with shading from a red pencil.  Fawcett's eyes can't help but impose lines on a form:


 but he understood tone and value as well:



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