Drawing vs sculpting-which is easier?

[Adolphine]

Intro = (I've had live nude model drawing for two years while attending school, went to the academy for another two years where we "learned" some more drawing (including live nude), was not allowed to try my first year for the third time. Went on to a four year course in marketing, which I quit after 3 months. Traveled a bit and found a long lost joy in modeling (kneadable eraser) which started during my theory classes in art school.)

After picking up modeling again I understood what Mozart said when he said: ''Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.'' And don't read me wrong and think I'm saying I'm a genius, which I absolutely am. Just saying that if you love something, it will make it effortless to keep trying.

To keep it short, I believe that whatever you love the most, will seem easier. Not saying it is, but it's all relative. "Pencil and paper" versus "marble, clay, welded scrap,..." OR => "Drawing with french fries and tomato ketchup" versus "carving out a block of ice with a machete".

For the general population, and I do not want to judge, but I'd say that drawing is more difficult to learn, but sculpting is harder to master...

That poem was obviously biased.

[evaldart]

When one finds oneself pleasurably and intentionally indulging in something (or someone) that "comes easy" then yes, you quite may be "enjoying" it. But to interact at a higher and higher level within a chosen area of aesthetic entanglement requires a motivation vastly different. In fact, the necessary self-imposed confrontation ought to be outright distressful, duressed, and painful. And this brand of desperate intensity permits a maximally yielding relationship to one's bodily senses (and a release from the mere "common" senses that marionette us through the general anti-climax of successfully sustaining). Thrill is way better than joy, and joy is better than happiness. Bleeding out into the art forces a constant regeneration, a continual fueling.

I dont imagine that it matters at all who gets to be called a genius. All that means is that some folks have clapped for you, for your "performance".

Drawing is indispensible for visual artists. It can be short-hand notes for rescuing certain thoughts out of the churning sea of ideas; or it can be THE medium, the act that delivers, a scratched and smudged death-match against flatter foes. Only will make you better.

[raspero]

I am not certain which is better, Evaldart, what you said, or the way you said it.

Richard

[Adolphine]

Eval=> "Thrill is way better than joy, and joy is better than happiness." Talking about semantics,...

I don't see the nescessity to endure a 40 day walk through the dessert to be accepted by someone. My work might as well been made under the comfort of my bedsheets, without dropping a pearl of sweat or grain of pretention. I would say that skill and "self-imposed confrontation" is overrated when there is no real imagination or creativity to be found. This because otherwise any stubborn enough individual can endure the torture that you talk of. I do see where you are coming from and respect your view mr E.
Also do I not consider most of the individuals with their chosen creative outlets that we can find in the mainstream to be genius. Though they are being applauded for while (most) "true" geniuses probably disappear without any or little acknowledgements , not that it matters since they should be enlightened enough to see through the redundant 15 minutes.

[evaldart]

As we use language in a fashion that is intended to achieve MORE than mere communication, were are likely FORCED to involve ourselves in or to advantage "semantics". The discussion of elevated matters such as significant form and forays into the principles of aesthetics asks far too much of the limited vocabulary and commonly accepted meanings provided for us. It is necessary to tweak, bend, twist and possibly re-invent uses for words and phrases. Yes, such will require as much imagination and creative application, perhaps, as some art does.

"Stubborness", resilience, wherewithal, fortitude, enduring, determination...all traits necessary to (heroically) bring an idea to the fruition of reality. Imagination alone cant do it; because then it just stays fantasy. There has never occurred a true aesthetic act that is without idea, imagination and a fantasy. Unfortunately, thought presides, and it takes great will, great nerve to turn it into a event (not just another experience). It is an uncommon kind of grueling, creativity - a self-imposed labor, untainted by direction that is not comparable to any task or chore that might be suffered in the name of mere function.

[Kilkenny]

Im not sure I see the point of asking "which is easier" - for what reasons would easier be better?

About a month ago I went to a national exhibition of drawing, and was very impressed both with the range of what is now regarded as 'drawing' as well as the range of artists using the medium (from abstract to hyper-real; from what is close to painting to needlework!). Perhaps the field of drawing is now as open to interpretation as sculpture has become, and as open as sculpture to what it can achieve by hands that are inspired by what other practitioners have led us towards. No art is born out of a vacuum, and the medium gets close to being nothing without some guy working it.

Sculpture harder? Hey, it doesn't get any easier that the work being produced by contemporary big-name sculptors who don't lay a hand on the work at all. But we've worked that topic.....

[evaldart]

Hey, it doesn't get any easier that the work being produced by contemporary big-name sculptors who don't lay a hand on the work at all. But we've worked that topic.....

Thats not sculpture. Whoever said THAT kind of stuff was sculpture? Have you been reading art mags again? tsk, tsk.

[CroftonGraphics]

Hi all on the subject of drawing,
in the UK we have this-
http://www.thebigdraw.org/home/index.aspx
Its a nice cause I think!

[Kilkenny]

Crofton - yes, I like it.

[KatyL]

Originally Posted by Adolphine

That poem was obviously biased.

What is not biased? Honestly.

[Adolphine]

Originally Posted by KatyL

What is not biased? Honestly.

You are probably right in that, meaning we are perhaps both right

You talk about sculpting in general. I don't relate to your manner of sculpting, though you write about drawing as only one dimensional. My way of sculpting is way easier than drawing a fresco on a kathedral ceiling, though I do agree it is easier than drawing in bed under the sheets, but not impossible. By the off chance that you were being a bit sarcastic and me taking it too seriously I will try not to be offended by you reveiling my incompetent sculpting abilities

[KatyL]

I'm always sarcastic. I should not be allowed in public. My main point is that "hardness" really is irrelevant. For all that, I think that making a perfect series of multi-plate lithographic or silkscreen prints is harder than either sculpture or drawing. Sculpting is like drawing in 3 dimensions (to me) it is simply a drawing that needs to be done on every side. Drawing is one view and usually done on a flat surface. It sounds easier, but it might not be. I think that "easiness" depends on who is doing it, and why.

A neighbor of mine just accidentally cut off two of his fingers. I think both drawing and sculpting will be hard for him for a while.