Books

On this day I will share with you a few tips and some advanced techniques from the master of Pencil Mr Theodore Kautzky. Author of two of the greatest art book on the art of Pencil drawings: The Ted Kautzky Pencil Book and Pencil Broadsides. This is a follow-up to this post on Drawing Life ART Page.

Theodore "Ted" Kautzky (1896–1953) was a Budapest-born architect, painter, teacher, and author of books on painting techniques. He emigrated to New York, United States in 1923.... Kautzky began drawing with a pencil and then advanced to black-and-white tones. He then learnt the use of brushes and watercolors to create realistic pictorial effects. Early on, he made use of the many tints and hues readily available in the stores at the time, but over the years began to simplify his color palette by being selective of the color pigments he would use to match his style and temperament. He espoused the same idea of being restrictive in color mixing to his students during his career as a teacher later in his life. 
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kautzky

Pencil Drawing Tips from Pencil Broadsides book by Ted Kautzky

From the fundamentals of pencil strokes to composition, texture and architecture, to learn more about any of those techniques I recommend you get a copy of or both of his books The Ted Kautzky Pencil Book and Pencil Broadsides

1 – Get your Strokes right – Fundamental Strokes

Keep it simple and use 2B and 4B only, using a knife to expose the lead then rub it against the sandpaper to create a wedge, like in the image (below). Drawing with the flat side of the wedge is what created the broad strokes, the signature style of Ted Kautzky.
Here are some more Drawing Tips and Techniques to Improve your Skills

2 – Architectural Bricks and Stones – Diagonal strokes give the impression of falling light

Do a fast and light sketch of the stone pattern, keep variety in lines, shapes and values in drawing stones and bricks and use diagonal broadside strokes to simulate the direction of light. Here are some more tips on how to draw buildings and urban scenes

3 – Pencil Drawing of Trees Tips

Study the tree structure, and make a light sketch of the shape. Realise that trees are three-dimensional objects. When some foliage is behind the trunk, that part of the trunk will appear lighter.

In rendering the foliage of these trees, I have used short broad strokes for the most part, with narrower radiating strokes, made with the narrower side of the broad-pointed pencil, around the edges of each mass. This treatment makes a clean, sharp silhouette against the sky, which is
left white, and suggests, without being too literal, the needles which make up the foliage.

– Theodore Kautzky

4 – Drawing Garden Scenes, flowers and greens

Go outdoor and observe subjects in nature, pay special attention to silhouettes of shrubs and flowers. To sketch these well, use multiple types of strokes. Long and curvy strokes are best for interpreting the general form, while shorter multi-directional ones are better for the textures and contrast. Keep your rendering varied in tone to show the play of direct light, reflected light and shadow. Leave the highlights of foliage on the white paper for contrast.

5 – Composition tips in Pencil Drawing of outdoor scenes

According to Kautzky, Composition is “the most difficult thing for the new artist”. To create a striking composition, sometimes you have to forget what you see. Remember, it’s the artist who creates the composition. Altering the scene and shifting a few elements around to achieve a better balance in your interpretation is what makes an interesting composition.

Here are a few tips on how to achieve that;

• Avoid strong horizontal (or vertical) scenes – in those cases, try to add accented vertical item in your frame
• A strong contrast to one side of the artwork creates an imbalance, shifting some values around the secondary objects to create balance in the composition.
• You can change the direction of the light to bring attention to the right subject in your composition.
• Adding a mid-tone can improve a composition

Conclusion

Theodore “Ted” Kautzky was, without a doubt, a master and one of the best artists in the work of pencil drawing. His books are an excellent source of knowledge, not only in the art of drawing but also in art generally, values, light, compositions and much more.

Firstly, before you are put off by the first few lines of the review of this famous Drawing Book, let me make this clear now: This is an excellent theoretical book on Art and particularly the Art of Drawing.

The Practice & Science of Drawing by Harold Speed is not the average art book we are used to with huge glossy pages and tons of photos. Most of these are, honestly, quite useless. This is not a photo-heavy book, nor does it have any instructional tutorials or step by step projects. But one thing is for sure: This one of the most informative, complete books on Drawing and Art that I have read to date.

“It is not sufficient in drawing to concentrate the attention on copying accurately the visual appearance of anything … as the faculty of accurate observation is. Form to be expressed must first be appreciated.”

Chapter Line Drawing: Practical – p. 103

About the Author

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Who is Harold Speed?

Harold Speed English Artist (Lived from 1872 to 1957). He was a member of Royal Society of Portrait Painters, son of the architect Edward Speed. He studied architecture at the Royal College of Art, then became a painter after studying at the Royal Academy Schools. You can see a collection of his works at the National Gallery.

In this book, Harold Speed has put more focus on artistic theories, the meaning of Art, some philosophy and in-depth explanations on techniques. This is what makes this book an extremely valuable resource for those of us who want to go further than just grab a pencil and draw. The analysis of artworks, technical concepts and ideas conveyed within, is priceless

Selection of Quotes from The Practice and Science of Drawing Book

The book starts quite slow and broad. It’s only after about page 50 that it gets interesting when it goes into the chapter Mass Drawing. In this chapter, the author goes into a great comparison of two drawing techniques by Michelangelo and Degas.

Later in chapters such as ‘The Study of Drawing’ he goes into great detail to make a case for the importance of studying the forms:

But at the same time he should study mass drawing with paint from the purely visual point of view, in order to be introduced to the important study of tone values and the expression of form by means of planes. And so by degrees he will learn accurately to observe and portray the tone masses (their shapes and values) to which all visual appearances can be reduced; and he will gradually arrive at the full realisation of form—a realisation that will bring him to a point somewhat similar to that arrived at from the opposite point of view of an outline to which has been added light and shade

Chapter: The Study of Drawing – pp. 80-81

The Line Drawing: Practical Chapter progresses to the practice of drawing and a few technical methods are explained in-depth.

In the case of foreshortenings, the eye, unaided by this blocking out, is always apt to be led astray. And here the observation of the shape of the background against the object will be of great assistance. The appearance of the foreshortened object is so unlike what you know it to be as a solid thing, that much as it is as well to concentrate the attention on the background rather than on the form in this blocking-out process. And in fact, in blocking out any object, whether foreshortened or not, the shape of the background should be observed as carefully as any other shape.

Chapter: The Line Drawing: Practical – p. 93

In the chapters of Rythm and even earlier in the book, Harold Speed speaks very strongly again about copying accurately anything, but to consider and seek rhythm and variety:

…all those who have aimed at an absolute perfection have usually ended in a deadness.

Chapter: Rhythm – p. 133

Later in the book, you will find it goes into great detail on subjects such as composition, variety of lines, mass drawing, proportions, portrait art and many other subtopics.

Finally, the author in a chapter on procedures gives some very practical advice on the importance of rest, intention and the best way to capture the best impression from life.

Look well at the model first; try and be moved by something in the form that you feel is fine or interesting, and try and see in your mind’s eye what sort of drawing you mean to do before touching your paper. In school studies be always unflinchingly honest to the impression the model gives you, but dismiss the camera idea of truth from your mind. Instead of converting yourself into a mechanical instrument for the copying of what is before you, let your drawing be an expression of truth perceived intelligently.

Chapter: Procedure – p. 266

This is one of the best books out there on the Art of Drawing. It remains in the Top 15 most popular art books of all time, and for a book on the topic of Drawing, this is a huge achievement in itself.

This book is useful for beginners to enhance visual literacy, yet is most invaluable when one is just over that stage and a little more experienced.

The copies of this book are widely available on various Libraries around the world including Gutenberg Archive Online Library itself, Amazon, Google etc. 

For an even more in-depth dissection of this incredible art literature, I recommend you check the post on James Gurney art blog