Gladiator Workshop - Karl Gnass - "Try Something that Turns Your Fork into Chopsticks"

Linda and I went to Karl Gnass's Gladiator workshop again this year. I can't believe a whole year has passed. I felt like he talked about different things this year the last year. I will have to check my notes maybe I just didn't remember what he said last year.

This is a work sheet he handed out in class. He really stressed drawing the two figures as one. Not doing them as cookies on a sheet.


Here are my notes:

Drawing 2 figures doesn't mean they are separate. You need to think about them as if they are one. Don't Figure one figure out and then the next - they need to integrate. Integratre lines of action. Integrate lone lines of expression. You need to draw energy. You need to figure out what the story is.

Relationship! Feeling! Synergy! Think about the point counterpoint. Ask yourself what the story is. Axis. Revolving. Ask yourself what is going on.

What is your point of view? What is the mood? What is the style?

We don't want decals. What are these gladiators telling me? What do they want to express?

Don't get lost in the buckles and rivets. If you start figure out the buckles and rivets too soon you are lost. Indicate the story elements. Because without the story we miss the boat. You need a good concise story. Try not to be subtroverted too fast. Think about composition. Break apart you habitual procedures. Try something that turns your fork into chopsticks!

Think : up-down, left-right, forward-back. If one head is tipped toward maybe the other is tipped away. Remember to create out of your head and not to rely totally on the model. Open up your imagination. Need to know the two figures are responding to each others' moves. You are not obliged to repeat what you see.

Remember a battle is more about strategy than swords clanking.

Remember to take care of the ground plane and really decide where the legs are going to be.

Don't get lost in swords and rivets - but remember hands and feet can be very important. Draw what they are wearing as it relates on figure to another.

Simple Shapes. Simple ideas. Rendering is not the story. Grapple with long lines and how they relate to each other.

Think of Cezanne as he considered the whole picture. He did not just place objects.

Everything is related to the frame. A cookie sheet is more interesting if one cookie has a bite taken out of it.

In Western Art we enter the frame from the lower left. Large against small is another strategy. One is responsible for every square inch in a picture not just the subject.

There is music in the visual experience. Nothing is accidental. Every mark has a reason. Finally, it is about orchestrating a whole movement. Once you put your figures in a frame every quadrant is important. Good design is important - but good design doesn't necessarily tell a story. Good design strikes the eye. Good design doesn't mean there is a pay off.

A picture wants a graphic sense and a pay off. The impressionists did that.

In a picture with borders every quadrant is important so every shape is important. Shape, Color and Intensity all play a role in pcitures. Shapes have angle of force. Every mark you put down effects in some way.

Every mark is a player.