I hadn’t looked at Henry Moore’s drawings before (I must confess I had only thought of him as a sculptor) but these were recommended to me by someone I was at college with. I really loved the way they are so different in style to other artists. It seems to be less of a hatching effect and more of a continuous line style (“Moore’s drawing technique was vigorous and without hesitation”) (3), going over and over the same areas to create depth of tone in the drawing. I also like the unique way in which his line suddenly veers and changes direction throwing in right angles and corners to describe the form of his objects. Moore used the drawings as a precursor to his sculptures, enabling him to work out ways in which material could be carved to create a three dimensional shape. “The sculptures are quite complicated, but by using drawing he could work out his ideas and how he could make the sculptures work, before actually creating them.” (1) A lot of the drawings I found were in black and white but I also liked the coloured drawing above and the way in which the monochrome subject contrasts with the subtle mustard tones of the background. I also really liked the way in which in the bottom right image has very deep tones around the figure which really emphasise the highlight of the light falling on the curves. It is almost as if he has drawn around the negative space and then filled the negative space in with subtle detailing afterwards. The way in which he views negative space can be summed up by “Moore’s interest in open and closed forms: he was intrigued by the way it was possible to perceive continuities between the mass of an object and the space around it – the way, perhaps, the space around (an object) grips it, rather than the other way around.” (2)
(1) http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/henry-moores-sculpture/drawing
(2) http://www.theartstory.org/artist-moore-henry.htm
(3) https://www.henry-moore.org/pg/exhibitions/archive/2013/moore-rodin/drawings
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Moore
Denise McHale 