Coral's Art History Blog: Drawing and Painting #3

Charles Gibson was a popular artist in the early 1900’s, whose specialty was drawing with pen and ink. He was most known for creating the “Gibson Girl”, which he saw as the identity of a young American woman. In my opinion he was one of the best illustrator, especially considering the fact that he drew in pen. Drawing in pen is difficult because you have to aim to be accurate the first stroke, even if you are just tracing pencil, there’s no going back. His repeated line with an occasional crosshatching technique seems to be what is showing the planes, shadows and creating depth to his drawings. Without that technique the drawings could look flat. When you notice how lines are the sole thing that makes up his drawings it seems so simple but as a whole it is complex and visually amazing.

John Singer Sargent was a popular artist in the late 1800’s and the early 1900; he had a special skill doing portraits of the wealthy in oil paint. Most people who learn to in oil paint start with a rough sketch on the plain canvas so they have some sort of outline to follow for when they apply paint. Sargent learned a technique from his teacher to not do a before sketch on the canvas with charcoal , but rather just draw with the paintbrush loosely. I personally think that when you learn to paint with the brush it forces you to take a risk and helps you become more skilled at executing a painting. If you look close at his paintings you can see how loose and thick he paints, but when you step back his paintings look very realistic and accurate. Both the techniques that Charles Gibson and John Singer Sargent used made them trust themselves more, which most likely helped them to become the skilled artists that they are thought of as today.