Inspiration Blog: Tone (Patreon)

In this inspiration blog, we're looking at artists who explore extremes of light and dark in their work. These inspirations blogs, which accompany our existing 34-week tutored life drawing course of blogs and videos, are intended to point you towards artists that you might not have encountered and to remind you of artists you might have forgotten about. Here three of our tonal favourites!

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Charles White 

The work of African-American artist Charles White (1918-1979) spans a range of drawing, painting and printmaking processes, dealing with the topics of racism and social justice in 20th Century America. Born into a work class family in Chicago and winning a grant to attend the Art Institute of Chicago Charles White was repeatedly denied scholarships awarded for the quality of his work on account of his race. Despite systemic prejudice White went on to study lithography and etching at the New York Art Students League and became an accomplished printmaker and painter. His work was the subject of a retrospective at MOMA in 2018-19.

• HERE is a video, giving an insight into the work of Charles White
• HERE is a link to work by the artist held at MOMA

Wanted Poster Series #15 by Charles White, 1970, Lithograph

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Käthe Kollwitz

German printmaker and sculptor Käthe Kollovitz (1867–1945) is best known for her powerful depictions of poverty and war, making use of the emotive power of tone in her expertly composed lithographs, etchings and relief prints. Her work balances confident observational drawing with skill-full visual storytelling; light and dark present in both the themes and visual language of her work. 

• HERE is a link to my favourite book about Käthe Kollovitz
• HERE is some further reading from MOMA

Schlachtfeld (Battlefield) by Käthe Kollwitz, etching, aquatint & engraving, 1907

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Alison Lambert

Our contemporary artist this week is British artist Alison Lambert (b. 1957). A long-time champion of drawing, Alison Lambert's layered charcoal & pastel figures and portraits are almost sculptural in their use of torn and stuck paper, erasure and re-drawing. Like all of todays artists she is also a printmaker, and has most recently been working on a series of mono-prints exploring classical subject matter. 

• Watch Alison Lambert drawing in this film HERE 
• Follow Alison Lambert on Instagram HERE 

Asteria by Alison Lambert, 2017, pastel & charcoal on paper

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The blog posts in the 34-week tutored life drawing course are available to all supporters, the full course of videos and reference photos are available to life and student tier supporters.

>> Read the Week 04: Tone blog post HERE (All Tiers)
>> Watch the Week 04: Tone main lesson HERE (Student & Life Tiers)
>> Watch the Week04: Tone demo video HERE (Student & Life Tiers)

Find links to the whole Tutored Life Drawing Course HERE