Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Ken Riley: The Importance of Drawing

Having learned that Riley drew comic book art during his earliest professional years, and remembering his statement, "I think with a pencil - in terms of line, and my paintings are essentially drawings", it made sense to me that we should devote one day this week to focus on Ken Riley's black and white line art.


The pieces above and below, excerpted from Frederic Whitaker's article in the June 1958 issue of American Artist magazine, are described as being "charcoal on a toned ground" (above) and "charcoal with grey and white gouache accents" (below).


I suspect the three pieces below from 1960 were similarly drawn in charcoal.


Whitaker writes, "There may be important artists who can't draw, but... drawing demonstrates two capabilities, that of analyzing what is seen or thought, and that of recording it, and these two faculties in combination constitute the very foundation upon which art production is based. The importance of draughstmanship was instilled in Riley personally by Thomas Hart Benton."


All of this is greatly impacted as well by an understanding of the nature of composition - and Ken Riley's vituosity at composing a picture is handily demonstrated in our final example below. Riley reinforces the importance of drawing to his working method when he says, "I make a number of thumbnail compositions in pencil. As I have said before, I think best in terms of line. After the line comes the masses. Design, which after all is an abstract matter unrelated to the appearance of reality, is the most important part of any picture [bold type mine] and this I seek to define with the lines and solid shapes."


My Ken Riley Flickr set.

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:05 PM

    these all have great draughtsmenship, leif....riley is great...the last? i heard he was still living, in his late 80's...there was a nice book i found on him at the strand book store years ago....it dealt with his western paintings....he also did many readers digest condensed books...and,by the way....i'm fairly sure he was a student of harvey dunn...best,brian...

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes Brian, he was a student of Harvey Dunn and before that a student of Thomas Hart Benton in 1938 at the Kansas City Art Institute. He had a very solid and varied education in art and illustration, and is very intellectual about the process of creating his paintings... a very interesting guy with a ton of talent.

    Tom Watson

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful work! Thank you for posting this. I am going to try to find one of his books!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Difference between Affect and Effect is crucial for students appearing for numerous competitive examinations. As the two phrases are simple to mix up and students may end up gaining fewer scores in English. Basically, affect and effect are the same sounding terms with distinct spelling and meaning. They are an important part of homophones. The meaning of affect is to influence when the effect is a noun. If you need to know more about affect and effect, you can get in touch with the expert who will give you the crucial information. You can hire experts from us. Call us today and get your assignment within the given deadline.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Find high-quality, safety-tested commercial playground equipment at low prices here! We carry only durable park playground structures from the top brands in the industry. Get a free quote today! creative recreation | commercial playground equipment | school playground equipment

    ReplyDelete
  7. This post is well-written post, Thanks a lot for sharing this post. pay to write essay

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pretty! This was an extremely wonderful post. Thanks for providing these details.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Croydon Cars MiniCab Taxi Service in London UK, are the main authorized taxi companies in the city of Croydon, offers transportation services employees by providing high standards of quality and professionalism. Choose our Minicab for a quick trip and safely to get to the Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Stansted and for any other destination.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Adeena's Kitchen Offer you delicious food to Eat &

    enjoy with all your loved ones.with A good curry

    consistently ranks among some of the nation's favourite

    food .https://www.adeenaskitchen.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for such post and please keep it up. Great work
    Frock design for Girls

    ReplyDelete
  12. Adeena's kitchen croydon; Get Menu, Reviews, Contact, Location, Phone 02036678566... My favourites are tangdi kebab, fried chicken kebab and tandoori tangdi,lamb Seekh Kabab.

    https://www.adeenaskitchen.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete