Diary of an author, waiting. part 10

The picture above is a nude study i made for my recent book in collaboration with Alan Moore, A Disease of Language I drew this on a tracing paper overlay over a more precise outline drawing. My idea was to evoke a sense of footlights for the theatrical scene of the dancer and the snake. Thus i had candles on the floor, but I had to work quickly or it would have done my eyes in. Also, I drew from a low angle to get an effect of monumental grandeur, so that I was folded up in a bundle on the wooden floor. How we suffer for our art. Part of the interesting effect of depth in this picture seems to be due to the accident of photocopying the sheet of tracing paper over the earlier outline sketch of the subject, which you can see showing through upside down.

Here’s another guy who is suffering, (thanks to Heidi at the Beat for drawing my attention to this).

http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2006/Peter_Panse/case1.asp

“PETE PANSE is a talented and popular high school art teacher in Middletown, NY who uses traditional techniques to to train his students. In December 2005 Mr. Panse was suspended from his job for recommending that some of his advanced students consider taking figure drawing courses that included nude figure drawings. Mr. Panse is suspended from his job pending hearings after which he may be permanently fired, ending a 25-year teaching career.”

Now, anyone who has ever built his life around art, even abstract artists, will tell you that the very cornerstone of an education in the practice of the subject is an extensive study of the nude. The linked article is a very intelligent and balanced view of the story.

Give it a read.

The Fate of the Artist, indeed!