Talking while Drawing

Sketching vs watercoloring

Interviewer: Can you explain why you feel comfortable talking while sketching with a pencil but not while painting with watercolor?

Stanley: Yes, it's something I've thought about. Pencil and paint, watercolors, that is, are different media. 

Interviewer: Different strokes for different folks?

Can talk...

Stanley: Not different folks. It’s media-driven. In sketching you can pause and in watercoloring you can’t. With pencil I can
stop and resume without losing the flow. With watercolor, once the paint is on the paper, you can’t correct easily.

Interviewer: So technicalities govern the workflow?

Stanley: There are techniques requiring close attention, like wet-on-wet, dry brush, and layering.

Interviewer: Is there anything in the way the two media make you feel?

Can't talk...

Stanley: Oh yes. Sketching is more casual. With painting it feels more intimate, almost like a dialogue between me and the canvas. So talking is like another person interrupting the conversation.

________

Voice-over

When sketching with a pencil mistakes can be erased easily and you can pick up where you left off. Watercolor painting requires adaptability and embracing imperfections. In other words, knowing when to control and when to let go, to anticipate how the paint will behave while also allowing for serendipitous effects. 

Framing a Watercolor

Of display, light and wood…

Stephano: Nice picture. Quite delicate. Any ideas for how you'd like it framed?

Basil: Something classic to match the age of the drawing itself maybe. A simple wooden frame with a subtle design to complement the intricate details of the watercolor.

Stephano: What about the color of the frame? Would you prefer something that blends in with the drawing or stands out to make a statement?

Basil: Blending in. Focus on the artwork itself rather than the frame.

Stephano: Good choice. And where do you plan to hang it? Is it going in a well-lit area or somewhere more subdued?

Basil: I'm thinking of placing it in my study, which gets plenty of natural light during the day but isn't directly exposed to sunlight.

Stephano: Alright, I suggest using UV protective glass then, to prevent any fading.

_________

Voice-over

A hundred years ago, some architects used their drawings as an artistic exercise. No doubt it also helped secure the contract.

Illuminations on Narrations

As the watercolorist said to the writer...

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Sui: Sometimes I look at a painting I’ve done and feel I want to change it. But that’s difficult with watercolor.

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Scrivener: If it’s oil, you can just add more paint.

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Sui: With water color you can correct to some extent, not impossible, but better before it’s dry.

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Scrivener: What happens if you try to change an already finished watercolor?

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Sui: Oh, you can lose transparency, upset the color balance, even tear the paper surface.

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Scrivener: With writing, you can always edit. Unless you were a scribe in the middle ages using a quill on parchment. Back then, writing was akin to painting.

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Sui: Mmm, art and writing have deviated a lot since then.

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Scrivener: But we can admire an artist who can talk and a writer who can draw.

____________

Voice-over

Pre-Gutenberg, writing was closer to painting. Think scriptoriums of monks laboriously scribing. Occasionally embellishing an initial letter, or illuminating a manuscript through devout illustrations.

...

Hitler and Churchill: Watercolorists

Villain, Hero, Artistic Argument

Hitler and Churchill discuss art…
Hitler: Make the painting big, make it simple, and eventually it becomes a cultural icon.
Churchill: Painting a picture is like trying to fight a battle.
Hitler: As for the degenerate artists, I forbid them to force their so-called experiences upon the public. If they do see fields blue, they are deranged, and should go to an asylum. If they only pretend to see them blue, they are criminals, and should go to prison. I will purge the nation of them.
Churchill: I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
Hitler: Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all. The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.
Churchill: At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used neat.
Hitler: I am an artist, not a politician. I want to end my life as an artist.
Churchill: When I die and go to heaven, I want to spend the first million years painting – so I can get to the bottom of the subject.
_________
Voice-over
Hitler and Churchill.
One was a villain.
One was a hero.
Together they created the epic of a terrible war.

Some might argue that, just as police and criminals are opposite sides of the same coin, Hitler and Churchill had a lot in common (for a comparison and contrast of the two go here).

But looking at Hitler’s and Churchill’s pronouncements about art, it is clear that Hitler had a totalitarian view of art whereas Churchill, for all his forthright prose, approached art as a challenge in the arena of democracy.
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