jayme del rosario | sketchblog

In my previous post on memory drawing, I mentioned the book The Training of the Memory in Art written by Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1847. It is out-of-print but good ol’ Google Books pulled through and made this rare find easily available online.

Another great resource on drawing from memory is also now available here. Drawing from memory: The Cavé method for learning to draw from memory, written by Marie Elisabeth Blavet Cavé. Here’s a portrait of Madame Cavé, painted by Ingres, from The Met’s permanent collection:

Cavé portrait, by Ingres

The first line of the book starts out with the sentence,

“This is the only method of drawing which really teaches anything.”

I can’t say I fully agree that it’s the only method of drawing that teaches one how to draw, but it certainly shouldn’t sit on the bench. Hours, weeks, months and years of learning how to draw accurately from direct observation has been immensely helpful (and frustrating at times); it has really helped me train my eye. Drawing from memory on the other hand helps me test my knowledge and thus has helped me train my mind.

On a side note, I think that this is also why I find the sculpture and ecorche classes that I’m taking with Steve Perkins so helpful. Besides the fact that working from 3D to 3D has allowed me to really understand the form, masses, rhythm and structure of the human body more directly, Perkins’ rare knowledge of the forms and masses and how he presents this information works to build up my memory of the figure. I find that I am able to store this information of patterns in a simple way – I think of it as a diagrammatic, yet organic, hierarchical filing system. But I digress…

Both books describe wonderful and fun exercises in how to test your observational memory. We have a 4-week long pose this month and after spending this last week on compositional studies and a drawing study, I begin the underdrawing/painting this coming week. I plan to test myself with this month’s pose by trying out a drawing from memory next weekend.

I’d love to follow-up with a memory sketch in clay, but I’ll see how the drawing goes first. I imagine the 3D version will only stand a chance if I really understand the pose from a structural construct rather than a purely optical/shape approach. The prospect of finding out how much I possibly don’t know about about a pose I spend 80 hours on is a scary thought…but I guess I should find out sooner than never. I’ll post both memory sketches (2D and 3D) over the next two weeks.

The tradition of drawing from memory has disappeared from art training despite its crucial role in developing the artist’s drawing skills, creativity and imagination.  One of my teachers, Jon deMartin, says you really find out how much knowledge you’re lacking when you try to draw the figure from memory. It’s a very humbling exercise. At the same time, you show yourself which areas you need to study more and which areas you have learned to integrate very well through the process of drawing from nature.  

No matter how many times you have drawn the figure from life, drawing the figure from memory remains a challenge.  The only way to reach the goal with greater ease is to continually practice drawing the figure from memory.  In Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Discourses on Art he tells (I believe in Discourse IX) his students to redraw from memory figures that they had previously drawn in the life class. Continual practice in this exercise, he said, would soon enable the student to draw “tolerably correct” human figures “with as little effort of the mind as is required to trace with a pen the letters of the alphabet.” Leonardo da Vinci recommended artists should go over the forms and outlines they had studied that day before going to sleep at night.

In our portrait sketch class with Kate Lehman at JCSA, we were asked to paint the same portrait from memory and it was amazing how much the brain simplified things down to the most essential elements — at least this was my strategy that day.  I was more amazed at what I was able to remember, than what I didn’t remember.  Simplification and a broad approach proved to be a great strategy in recreating the portrait.  Now I am lucky enough to get my hands on an out-of-print book, The Training of the Memory in Art written by Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1847.  I am looking to improve my skills in memory drawing not only to aid drawing from the imagination, but to be able to develop compositions in the process of picture making.

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Links:
Jon deMartin
Kate Lehman

Books: 
Discourses on Art, Sir Joshua Reynolds (online version of 7 discourses, here)

Check out:
Another post on memory drawing via one of my favorite blogs, Gurney Journey.