David Hockney
...brickwork in the lower part of the picture. The tonal value of ‘Bridge Street’, as in ‘Mount Street’, set the mood of the drawing. The use of smudging, sharp scratchy lines and cross-hatching imply a direction of urbaneness and decay. As with ‘Mount Street’, the lines in this picture almost join up, providing you with a vanishing point, as though Hockney has drawn it in for you. All the sloping lines add a sense of drama. ‘Skeleton’ (pencil,1959) is a picture similar in format and style to Bridge Street and Mount Street; although the composition is quite different. It echoes them not in the sense of what the theme of the picture is, but in the format of the picture. The first thing that caught my eye when I looked at the drawing, were the three vertical, bold lines down the right hand side of the picture. These vertical lines seem to show a similarity to the electric pylon and the two vertical lines in the other pieces; pulling you into that area of the picture, as not to focus on much else. The form of the picture suggests that Hockney wants us to focus on the skeleton. As with the two other pictures, Hockney uses bold, saturated, vertical lines to contrast against pencil lines of a different tonal value, the cross hatching of a fence, the soft delicate line of the fence, or in this case the sharper lines of the skeleton. Again, Hockney surrounds the skeleton in vast space, paying minimal attention or subsequently, detail to background as not to detract from the focus of the picture, being the skeleton. Hockney’s early art education gave him a visual language that was enabled him to record his perceptions of the world as accurately as possible. A prime example being ‘Bedroom’ which was one of the pieces that Hockney did whilst living in California. In ‘Bedroom’ (pencil and coloured crayon,1966) certain parts of the picture, such as the duvet, were drawn freehand, creating a trembling line, which contrasts against the ruler drawn lines of much of the background. The technique of this line value suggests that Hockney was giving us an insight into what he felt about Los Angeles at the time. The use of ruler drawn lines seems to be used to ‘depersonalize’ the piece to show his views or his opinions of California; suggesting perhaps uncertainty and a sense of extreme formality. “ Amazingly, everything in California did look neat to me, no matter where you lived...even in cheap apartments, no matter what, they always had a neat bed with a neat edge...the last thing it was, was cozy. It’s like my mother’s comment going to someone’s house, “Well it’s nice, but it’s not home is it?” With those few words spoken to him by his mother, he drew a picture that effectively spoke a thousand words. His use of ruled lines and ‘sharp’ imagery do in fact give an overwhelming sense of tidiness; yet along with the use of vast space (as with the other picture that I looked at) it detracts from the ‘cozy’ element of the picture. The life drawings that Hockney produced shortly after his graduation are characterized by supple, simplified contours in contrast to timid bounding lines. Hockney used a rapidograph pen for his portraits, and the manner in which he used it obliged him to learn how to suggest volume, texture and light through inflections of a single taught and interrupted line. ‘W.H. Auden I’ (ink,1968) shows similar format to the other drawings included in this investigation. There is the man’s head at eye level, concentrating the detail with different tones and shape of line, against a vast, empty background. His hands show minimal detail, again, so as not to detract from the center of vision, being the head. Hockney’s drawings have always carried a certain weight. During intense phases of painting, drawing is always an accompanying medium in which Hockney does preparation for the final work; at the same time his drawings have equal status with other media. Drawing has always been a virtual aspect of Hockney’s work. After investigating into Hockney’s work, I think he is the type of artist that once focused on a particular aspect of art, engages himself in it almost to the point of obsession. A raw passion. Constantly producing sketches of things he observes, whatever he does or wherever he goes. He draws all the time, quick sketches forming a personal diary of Hockney’s experiences, his tribulations through life. He is defiantly, a drawer and a painter, yet also experiments with other media such as photography. Hockney believes that in a world dominated by photographically produced images, our visual culture (from Hollywood films to advertising) has become dull...only real image makers can free us again.” By this he presumably means the use of first hand images as in drawing and painting. Something that he said in the Guardian recently, sums up his belief, and dedication to the importance of drawing and painting to him as an artist. For me, it seems to portray him superbly, showing the true artist that he really is: “Nor can any machine re...