Detlef Jumpertz

Two weeks into the new year and already my artistic plans for 2005 are being revised!

First the bad news, I had high hopes of entering the Turf Monthly Art Prize but after several weeks of trying to come up with a different way of interpreting all things equine I'm still at a loss for ideas. Alas, I admit defeat and acknowledge that it ain't going to happen. I hope the brain moves from neutral into creative high gear so that I can enter in 2006.

Now for the better news, I have been participating in (and enjoying) Illustration Friday [IF]. I have probably harped on (and on) about how my style is not suited to the weekly deadline, still being involved, even on a casual basis, has been rewarding. Not the least being as a source of inspiration for ideas for "proper" drawing projects.

In particular, IF's theme of magic, was one that I found particularly fascinating - I think I spent more time surfing the web re: magic history than I did drawing. Hey, let's acknowledge it, I did spend more time surfing than drawing.

Nonetheless, reading about the history and mythology associated with the golden era of magic (circa 1890 - 1930s) really sparked my artistic and intellectual curiousity. A good primer on the history of magic is Jim Steinmeyer's Hiding The Elephant. From the artistic side, I was impressed by the style of promotional and advertising posters available. What a thrill it must've been to witness first hand tricks that involved levitation, disappearances, transformations and a swag of other illusions alluded to in the posters. By contrast, I find the professional magician of today as being overly glitzy and kitsch.

Somehow I felt inspired enough by the deeds of magicians of the golden era to attempt to capture some of that romance and nostalgia, and draw one of the better known, but least depicted, tricks - the Indian Rope Trick (aka the Hindu Rope Trick).

The drawing is probably several weeks away from being completed, but for something different I thought I'd provide photographic updates after each new element is completed.

Drawing Basics 101

Everything you read about technique here is probably contrary to what they teach at art/drawing school - so be it! I'm self-taught and what works for me, might just work for others.

This drawing will have a portrait orientation and its approximate size will be 100cm x 70cm. I use heavy paper, the heaviest I can find that enables a good compromise between the paper's weight, its ability to absorb laying down multiple layers of graphite, and its tooth and grain to give the effect that I want. I just use what feels right for me and pick it out at the art store.

The basic composition for this drawing is a background (stage curtain), middle ground showing the Indian rope trick (rope, boy climbing rope [spotlighted for effect], turban clad snake charmer sitting on the stage floor complete with basket from which the rope rises) and foreground of magician (3/4 quarter body shot). The rope trick is being performed on the viewer's left hand side, and the magician will be on the right hand side. Coming up with composition, and each element's positioning took me about 3 solid days of conceptualising before I was happy how things would "look".

If everything goes to plan we should have a roughly circular pattern that will link and balance the visual elements. Ideally irrespective of where the viewer first focuses on the drawing their eye will hopefully be led around the picture by the subtle (and not so subtle) sightlines. In this case the visual prompts will be (in anti-clockwise direction from the top): the spotlighted boy climbing the rope; the rope itself; the snake charmer and basket; the bottom of the stage curtain and stage; the magician; and to complete the circle the magician's outstretched arm.

Putting pencil to paper

Composition taken care of, now comes what I call the mark-up, lightly outlining on the paper in B or 2B pencil the major elements. For this drawing, I'm drawing in a traditional sense doing the background first, and working down the left hand side of the paper - usually I jump all over the place (the beauty of drawing over other mediums is the flexibility it provides as to where on the page/paper/canvas you want to draw whether it be foreground, middleground or background....if you take the scattergun approach then you must learn to be a good paper manager though to decrease the chance of smudging). The basic mark-up took about 2 hours (slow ain't I?).

Stage Curtain

OK, the stage curtain background was the first thing I worked on. The technique involved getting a 3B piece of charcoal, and placing the charcoal fairly thickly on the paper - then getting a clean rag ('though it wasn't for much longer), and vigourously rubbing the charcoal into the paper with the rag. This lightens and softens the harshness of the previously black charcoal, I used vertical rubbing strokes to simulate the direction of the folds of the curtain. The somewhat uneven action of rubbing provides "natural" drape fold lines to then highlight. For my drawings, I usually rub more than draw, the drawing being for detail work and highlights. Drape highlights were added using 3B, 6B and 8B pencils where appropriate, and a kneadable eraser (an absolutely indispensable piece of equipment) to lift off and further ligthen areas.

The spotlighted area of the curtain was done in the same manner, except that to further lighten this area of the curtain in a more even manner, I, discarded the kneadable eraser, and used white Conte pencil/crayon. I drew over the circular spotlighted area with the Conte, and then using the rag rubbed and blended the Conte into the previous charcoal layer. All of this took about approximately 3 hours (yes I'm fussy).

The climbing boy and rope



This area of the drawing is much more in line with traditional drawing, using a range of pencils from B to 9B, to gradually build-up depth and tonal gradation. I often use a paper stump or torchon to blend, and quite often to draw with. Once graphite builds on the end of the torchon, it can be used to give a "feathery" effect and lightness of touch that a pencil cannot produce of its own accord. Ditto, for a graphite-stained rag which I also often use to "draw" with. Fabric folds can be tricky to do, I don't have any real insights apart from observation and lots of practice. In the end, its about building up tone around fold lines, then taking them away using the kneadable eraser, and then building the tone up again etc - one step forward, two steps back I hear you say.

Skin tones in graphite are also buggers, this is where I tend to use either a HB to lightly shade, or use the torchon itself. For this detail work that kneadable eraser is a godsend to lift graphite off the paper and get the light areas just right. At the moment I'm not happy with the feet, or more precisely the ankle on one foot, but I'll leave it for now, and if necessary fiddle later on - I suspect they'll look OK once the rest of the picture comes together.

The only additional thing I have done is go around the outline of the boy and rope quite heavily with an 8B pencil, and then blended that into the background. This will give it that "pop-out" feel - this being necessary to offset it against the relatively dark background of the picture. I might also have to darken the outer edge of the spotlight circle, using maybe a 3B pencil, but that can be put on hold until I'm nearer the end. So we now spray the work with a can of workable mat fixative to stop the hard work thus far, from smudging etc (always a problem with an errant cat running around). The climbing boy and rope has taken about 3 hours to this stage.

The next instalment of this riveting saga will focus, when I get around to it, on the snake charmer, so stay tuned: same bat time, same bat station!

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