Michelangelo wrote:
Drawing constitutes the fountainhead and substance of painting and sculpture and architecture… and is the root of all sciences. Let him who has attained the possession of this be assured that he possesses a great treasure.
Is this still true?
Lately, drawing seems beleaguered by new technologies that changed our artistic priorities, shortened our attention span, devalued our skills, and drowned us in a sea of images all barking for our attention. In order to appreciate these billions of images, we need to rely on search terms for the efficient extraction and curation of information; the days of taking Mussorgsky’s leisurely stroll through Pictures at an Exhibition are over.
Even worse, developments with artificial intelligence suggest that the role of the artist may be to create prompts that will be embodied digitally.
Yet, keep in mind that art has been adapting to technology for a long time. 100 years ago, when animation changed the job description of an artist, it’s inspiring to see how human creativity responded.
For thousands of years, artists staged drawings to lead the eye around a static image. Now they were working wit the 4th dimension; time. The artists at Disney needed to apply traditional qualities, such as balance, proportion and composition to the movement of a camera instead. I love the following tasty combination of drawing and engineering that designed the movement of Pluto in Mickey’s Kangaroo (1935). It’s a good example of Michelangelo’s point that drawing is the root of all sciences.”
 |
| “Drawing is thinking.” — Fred Ludekens |
In the next drawing, Disney artists move the camera from the evil queen walking away to a close up of the lock on the dungeon door behind her.
 |
| This is not the way a conventional pencil drawing would be staged, but it’s just as creative, and suited for its new purpose. |
