Van Gochs letter to his brother on drawing

“Well, and yet it was in these depths of misery that I felt my energy revive and I said to myself, I shall get over it somehow, I shall set to work again with my pencil, which I had cast aside in my deep dejection, and I shall draw again, and from that moment I have had the feeling that everything has changed for me, and now I am in my stride and my pencil has become slightly more willing and seems to be getting more so by the day. My over-long and over-intense misery had discouraged me so much that I was unable to do anything.”

Contrast

In order to produce drawings that are vibrant and exciting one of the tricks that artists use is contrast.

This contrast can be achieved in a number of different ways for example texture, lighting, line, grey scale

Proportion, layout and scale. There are many more methods that one can use to create contrast see how many you can come up with and produce a simple storyboard that highlights each one. A  good understanding of contrast is also important as too much information contained in a drawing can also confuse the viewer, it is important to use contrast to your best advantage. Think about the message or  what you want to enhance in the drawing, remember a drawing is the same as any piece of artwork sometimes more is less.    

As you know by now Van Goch is one of my favorite artists he had produced more than 1100 drawings by the age of 27.When we analyze his drawing of men unloading at the dock let us examine how he uses contrast to involve you in the drawing. The first thing that I notice is the white space on the left of the dock this is the first major contrast as everything else in the drawing is full of texture.

The chain hanging off the dock on the left hand side uses heavy line when the rest of the drawing has lines of medium weight he uses weight to contrast and at the same time sends the message that the chains are strong anchoring the boats.

The next most striking contrast for me is the texture of the water in the front of the drawing compared to the contrast in the background. He has in a very clever way created depth in the drawing with a few strokes sending the message that the water in the front of the drawing is more turbulent than the water in the back of the scene.     

Without giving too much away see what other interesting areas of contrast you can identify in the drawing what is interesting to me is the masts of the ships and the planks why did he leave them white and with no detail. See if you can work it out? Also notice the fact that this is not only a drawing he has used areas of wash as well. This brings me back to my original point of understanding how to use contrast to the drawings advantage.  

Have fun and see what else you can identify.