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Definition of a drawing. When does a drawing become a painting?
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Message
Posted
That's a great question! It's not an easy one to answer since it often comes down to artistic interpretation. Some might say it's when you add color, some might say when you use a brush and others might say it's when it starts having a real sense of depth and texture. You could say a painting is in the eye of the beholder!
Posted
I think the answer is more up to the artist than any committees. Art is full of hair splitting as it is, oil, watercolour, chalk, charcoal, ink mixed media etc, why make more. If done on a canvas or a cave wall by making marks , it's art. This is "Painters Online" is it not? (-:
Dear Mr Picasso, is your Guernica a painting or a drawing? Since it is mainly colourless, we not quite sure?
Edited
by Jim Morris
Posted
Hi everyone. I didn't get round to phoning the RBSA exhibition organiser - because when I checked out the dates and details, I saw I'll be away on holiday for all 4 of the hanging days! So entering and getting work accepted was a bit of a moot point!! I'll also miss the Ludlow Art Society Summer Exhibition, which always clashes with our annual trip to the Isle of Man, although I'll doing my usual solo exhibition at h.Art (Herefordshire Art Week) with a group of other artists and makers at St Michael's Church, Oldwood Common, Tenbury Wells when I get back. I'm trying - and failing - to make time to build a website at the moment .....
Posted
What one person considers a drawing, another might see as a painting. I usually find that drawings typically rely on mark-making with dry media such as pencils, pens, charcoal, or pastels to create lines, shading, or textures. Paintings, on the other hand, often involve using wet media such as watercolors, oils, acrylics, or gouache to apply pigments in a more fluid manner. Moreover, drawings often emphasize the use of lines, hatching, cross-hatching, and shading to create form, texture, and depth. The focus is on capturing the essence of the subject through the manipulation of line and tone. Paintings, in contrast, tend to place more emphasis on color, brushwork, and the interplay of light and shadow. Anyway thanks for the great question that bring me more exciting perspectives, Bobbie.
Edited
by Gregorio O'Keefe
Posted
All good points, but you'll be aware that pastel paintings ... are called paintings.
I think this takes us back to where we were, basically! Honestly, I can't be bothered to mark the divide - when we paint, we draw: we have to, don't we? We have to establish our shapes, and if this doesn't take hard line, it will take negative painting. I think we need - as practioners of these deadly arts - to just forget such distinctions when we work, or we'll hobble ourselves.
Afterwards - when we have to consider how to label what we've done - that's when the trouble begins.... added to other issues: e.g., what's a "sketch"?; what's a "study"; what's an "outline", a "thumb-nail", a "WIP"? I think what we might be saying, with those particular words, is "actually, I'm not sure I've really finished this yet, so don't judge me as if I had": which is a bit on the wimpy side, while being entirely understandable.
Of course, I could be speaking entirely for myself here, while offering my usual excuses...
