The Secret of Drawing 1 – the Line of Enquiry
01/11/20
From the documentary “The Secret of Drawing 1 – the Line of Enquiry”, there were 3 artists in particular that stood out to me: Leonardo Da Vinci, Cassiano dal Pozzo, and John Russell. When it came to Leonardo Da Vinci, his art and depictions of anatomy brought forth an appreciation of how beautifully complex our world is – particularly when it comes to understanding humans on a more physical level. I haven’t drawn much, but one thing I picked up really quickly was the importance of understanding anatomy to be able to convincingly depict the world around us, whether in a realistic or cartoonish style. I was also drawn to how his art had an impact on modern medicine and the natural flow and connection between his art and science. For Cassiano dal Pozzo, I was just amazed and interested by the level of detail in his works and in other works in the Paper Museum. The attention to the form, color, and shading while depicting everything from animals to vegetables was incredible. As someone who’s a visual learner and curious about the world around us, the concept of trying to capture all human knowledge into a visual format was brilliant and an amazing project to embark on and complete. I was interested in John Russell’s depictions of the moon partially because I really enjoy space. I recently got the chance to look at the moon from a telescope and I can relate to the feeling of awe looking at it. I also thought that having enough detail to be able to potentially identify individual craters was a remarkable feat, and I was also interested by the obvious amount of care and passion that Russell put in his drawings.
Word count: 285
Source: “The Secret of Drawing 1 – the Line of Enquiry” Hosted by BBC and written and presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon