Drawing from Home: Turning Art on its Head

April 8, 2020

Taken from the recent publication by the Royal Drawing School, Ways of Drawing, Turning Art on its Head is an exercise designed by faculty member Ann Dowker that enables us to draw and learn from exisiting art works.

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Turning Art on its Head

With: reproductions of paintings

Choose a painting from any collection, ideally something pre-twentieth centrury

Get hold of a reproduction in a book, a postcard, photocopy or print-out. For this exercise, let's take a reproduction of Vermeer's Young Woman seated at a Virginal (c. 1670-72), which is in the National Gallery, London.

Turn the reproduction upside down and draw from it. This will help you to draw what you see, rather than what you think you see or know. In the Vermeer painting the edges of the walls and windows do not seem so hard the space becomes compressed. Always be aware of the shape of the work; everything in it relates to the edges.

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Once you have completed your upside-down drawing, turn it the right way up. You will be surprised at how awkward the drawing is - gauche and untutored. Don't be discouraged! By attempting to draw from the painting this way, with time your observation will grow sharper, more accurate, until you find that you are drawing form and not labels.

This exercise can be extended by making drawings from memory, or by changing the scale of the piece.

Tag us in your drawings on instagram @royaldrawingschool or Twitter @RoyalDrawing and use the hashtag #drawingfromhome so we can share your creations!

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Ann Dowker is a painter, draughtsman and printmaker. She taught at Chelsea School of Art and the Byam Shaw School of Art for 10 years, is a freelance tutor at The National Gallery and has tutored at the Royal Drawing School since it was founded in 2000. She printed for many years for and with Leon Kossoff and was involved in the curating of his show at the National Gallery. Ann has exhibited with Theo Waddington, Angela Flowers and Art Space Gallery and has been in many mixed shows. She now works between London and Egypt.

Drawings from top: Bobbye Fermie, Jessie Makinson, Amy Ison