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TC#1
Mark making, often in the form of drawing, is considered to be the foundation of art – a way of thinking visually. It can be used for different purposes and is a powerful form of communication.
About the graphicOur Threshold Concepts for Art are accompanied with illustrations to aid their introduction. Each image contains a reoccurring graphic: a fingerprint in the shape of an artist's palette. In TC#1 this forms an eye drawing our attention, framed by a black circle which we recognise as a pair of glasses. The hand prints and dots are a nod to some of the earliest forms of mark making; the scribbles are representative of a more expressive type of mark making such as those made by Cy Twombly. The red lips (palette-shaped, again) are a playful link to this Cy Twombly related anecdote. Click the images below for further context.
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“All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.”
John Ruskin
- How might the artworks above link to our TC#2 illustration? Look for your own connections and then follow the links to find out more.
- Consider and note down or discuss the motivations for making these various artworks/marks.
- How about the examples below - can you make imaginative or playful connections between these examples and those above, or with the TC#2 illustration? Roll over the pictures for further information; click for an enlarged view.
WhAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?
- Mark making in art is not fixed or limited to the materials that you find in the art cupboard. Marks - lines, dots, scratches, scribbles, patterns, textures, rubs, bumps, brushstrokes, pixels etc. - can be made in all sorts of ways, with an infinite amount of tools and techniques.
- When it comes to creating art, students can overly worry about the marks that they make. Art - mark making - doesn't have to be a precious exercise. Marks can be used to produce hyper-realistic drawings (and this is fine), but they can also lead to something more expressive, experimental, accidental, playful, abstract, energetic, symbolic - lots of possibilities!
- One of the challenges for new art students is this: to worry less about creating impressive marks and to pay more attention to the qualities and subtleties of mark making. Think carefully, observe sensitively, and question often. How does this line weight vary? How does this ink flow differently to that paint? How might this texture be re-created? What happens when I make marks without overly thinking or looking, even? What happens if I'm listening to music - does that influence the marks I make? Do marks have to be visual or seen - for example, could a sound or a smell be considered as a type of mark in space?
- The meanings of marks are not fixed and are open to interpretation by individual viewers. How we read and interpret marks is shaped by our experiences , knowledge, understanding and intuition. Marks can be combined in infinite ways to draw our attention. Marks made (which can add up to artworks) can bring to mind the present, remind us of the past, or speculate on the future. Marks can provoke thoughts and actions, make suggestions, challenge beliefs, express ideas, emotions ... and much more. Understanding the histories of mark making in art can improve your visual literacy, cultural awareness and critical thinking skills.
Below is an introductory slideshow to encourage initial reflections and discussion:
Practical ideas for the classroom
Oodles of Noodles
Imagine trying to draw a plate of spaghetti or noodles, or a tangled ball of wool or string. You might even consider drawing the back of a friend's head - one with a lot of hair, that is.
Depending on your patience and confidences, this might be an enjoyable challenge or a daunting notion. Perhaps an attempt at accurate representation might seem futile. But then,a less constrained, more expressive approach might bring alternative benefits or challenges ...
Imagine trying to draw a plate of spaghetti or noodles, or a tangled ball of wool or string. You might even consider drawing the back of a friend's head - one with a lot of hair, that is.
Depending on your patience and confidences, this might be an enjoyable challenge or a daunting notion. Perhaps an attempt at accurate representation might seem futile. But then,a less constrained, more expressive approach might bring alternative benefits or challenges ...
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Above: various studies of, with, and in response to string and spaghetti. Right: mark making tools and brushes made from noodles and spaghetti - for drawing noodles and spaghetti. ACTIVITY This exercise is a great way to get you thinking about ways of mark making, the purposes of drawing, and how best to deploy the visual/formal elements (line, tone, texture, shape, colour, pattern, form, space). Here's a suggested sequence:
Below: Illustration of (mostly) the backs of heads, with details, by Robert Fawcett source |
- Consider the skills required for an 'accurate' recording. ('Realistic', 'representational', 'figurative' and/or 'photo-realistic' are other words that might be used for drawings that appear to look like the subject matter, but this is a debatable notion).
- How do these 'accurate' drawing skills compare to those needed for looser, more expressive, less constrained responses? What gives a particular response more 'value' than another? - And how might we measure the value of the marks we or others make? (For example, in their visual, technical, contextual, conceptual or emotive value; or personal, historical, financial, social or cultural standing? How about 'value' within school assessment terms? Is it possible, and/or problematic, even, to order a class set of results from best to worst, or most to least interesting, accurate or abstracted?
- How might your tangled spaghetti, noodles, string or backs of heads be used to provoke further experimental, abstracted or expressive responses? How about a response that is more imaginative, surreal or absurd? How about a response that is more symbolic, metaphorical or profound?
Drawing Timelines
As we learn to make marks there are various stages of learning that we pass through, often without too much thought. Consider your own experiences, from early playful scribbles to the frustrations or pleasures of drawing 'accurately'. (Note: the reoccurring single speech marks accompanying 'accurately' are to emphasise this description isn't necessarily accurate in itself. For example, drawings tend to be monochromatic and flat/2 dimensional; observed subject matter - real life - tends to be 3 dimensional and in colour. So, in matters of mark making, accuracy is a debatable illusion).
The following activities are inspired by this historic research into drawing development, below, by Viktor Lowenfeld and Betty Edwards.
As we learn to make marks there are various stages of learning that we pass through, often without too much thought. Consider your own experiences, from early playful scribbles to the frustrations or pleasures of drawing 'accurately'. (Note: the reoccurring single speech marks accompanying 'accurately' are to emphasise this description isn't necessarily accurate in itself. For example, drawings tend to be monochromatic and flat/2 dimensional; observed subject matter - real life - tends to be 3 dimensional and in colour. So, in matters of mark making, accuracy is a debatable illusion).
The following activities are inspired by this historic research into drawing development, below, by Viktor Lowenfeld and Betty Edwards.
ACTIVITY
Produce a series of self-portraits, one for each stage of the drawing timeline. You can employ a variety of strategies for this:
Produce a series of self-portraits, one for each stage of the drawing timeline. You can employ a variety of strategies for this:
- The Scribbling Stage: Use your mouth or your cubital fossa (yep, I looked that up) to hold your pen or pencil.
- The Schematic Stage: Use your non-writing hand to grip your pen in fist - use basic, flat shapes and lines only with no suggestion of form.
- The Dawning Realism: Develop a more controlled, detailed version of your Schematic Stage self-portrait. Use your usual hand, but pay attention to the finer and more decorative details - textures for hair, patterns on clothes, freckles, shoe laces, teeth...
- The Pseudo-Naturalistic Stage: Remember those first attempts at one-point perspective, or smudging your pencil in an attempt to make a drawing look 'more real'? Try to recreate these attempts. They are often a little more heavy-handed in line quality with key features overly-outlined.
The above images, top row, show various stages of drawing development in children. The four images below these are by established artists.
- Why are so many artists drawn to techniques and approaches that may, at first glance, seem overly simple or child-like?
- Which words best describe the similarities or the differences between the two layers of images?
Artists have long been captivated by children’s mark making because it captures spontaneous emotion, unfiltered imagination, and an instinctive freedom from rigid technical rules. This fascination, evolving in the 20th Century as a Modernist concern, also fuelled artistic interest in 'Naive' art—a (debatably patronising) label applied to work made by artists without formal academic training, often recognisable by its flattened perspective, bold shapes, and direct style. Folk traditions and non-Western cultural artifacts have also had similar appeal as an alternative to 'traditional' realism. In the 20th Century, these influences generated a shift away from centuries of traditional representation—which prioritised mimicking reality through technical skill—and pushed art toward modernist abstraction, where emotion, colour, and process became more significant.
Important to state ... just because an artist's work might appear to someone (be they more or less informed) as if 'a child could do that', this doesn't necessarily mean that a child could or would. It also doesn't mean that the artist is necessarily inspired by, or attempting to work like a child. It might often be said as criticism, but some artists might take it as a compliment - or a sign of naivety in itself.
Traditional, Modern, Contemporary?
The table below is by Neil Walton, Subject Leader for PGCE Art & Design at Goldsmiths, University of London. It is his informed attempt to organise various concepts, histories and/or approaches to art making. It's not without contentions or complications - because art isn't easy to pin down - but it can provide a helpful point of reference.
The table below is by Neil Walton, Subject Leader for PGCE Art & Design at Goldsmiths, University of London. It is his informed attempt to organise various concepts, histories and/or approaches to art making. It's not without contentions or complications - because art isn't easy to pin down - but it can provide a helpful point of reference.
Mark making as Performance
Mark making is a physical activity: we grasp a tool, apply pressure to a surface and move our hands. But of course there is more to the experience than this. As we create art we are constantly moving, looking, thinking and engaging emotionally. Our bodies are active and endorphins abound. The larger the scale, the more physical the act becomes. Sweeping arm movements can add new energy; mark making becomes an act of physical expression.
Many artists working in the Modernist period (early to mid 20th Century) became interested in the physicality of mark making, and this shaped Performance Art as a movement which, in turn, has shaped contemporary performances and collaborative practices.
Mark making is a physical activity: we grasp a tool, apply pressure to a surface and move our hands. But of course there is more to the experience than this. As we create art we are constantly moving, looking, thinking and engaging emotionally. Our bodies are active and endorphins abound. The larger the scale, the more physical the act becomes. Sweeping arm movements can add new energy; mark making becomes an act of physical expression.
Many artists working in the Modernist period (early to mid 20th Century) became interested in the physicality of mark making, and this shaped Performance Art as a movement which, in turn, has shaped contemporary performances and collaborative practices.
- Watch the two short videos below. The first is an introduction to Performance Art, the second shows a range of live drawing performances. (Note: this does contain some nudity from 9:51 to 10.15).
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20th Century Abstract Expressionist, Jackson Pollock, famously stated: "I don't paint nature, I am nature". His paintings and the physical act of mark making - rhythmically moving about his canvas, pouring, dripping, painting with gesture - are inseparable. Is mark making a kind of performance?
ACTIVITY
Consider the physicality of different ways of working with reference to the examples in the videos (gestures, dances, performances, sound-making, interactions etc.). How do these compare to your own experiences of mark making? How might you explore mark making in new ways?
- Devise a collaborative performance that results in marks being left as evidence. A starting point might be a recorded conversation, a music track, or a news article. Alternatively the work might be a spontaneous visual conversation with participants making marks in silent response to one another.
“We who draw do so not only to make something visible to others, but also to accompany something invisible to its incalculable destination.”
John Berger
FURTHER READING
The following texts have been chosen to promote wider contextual study. Students should consider the author's intentions, their chosen writing style, and how the texts combine research and historical facts alongside personal insights and opinions.
- A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World, Jo Merchant, Smithsonian Magazine, 2016
- Through the eyes of a child Christopher Turner, Tate Etc., 2010
- The deliberate accident in art Christopher Turner, Tate Etc., 2011
- A Bigger Splash: did performance art change painting? Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 2012
- Cy Twombly - blood-soaked coronation for a misunderstood master Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, 2016
- Drawing to learn, learning to draw, Eilleen Adams, NSEAD resources, 2013