About this artwork
This is a drawing of a stingray by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, and it's like looking at a fleeting thought, all done in pencil. The sketchiness lets you see how Dijsselhof was thinking, how he built up the image bit by bit. I’m really drawn to the contrast between the dense, almost scribbled shading around the ray, and the clean lines defining its form. It’s like the ray is emerging from a cloud of graphite. The texture feels immediate, you can almost feel the tooth of the paper. Look at the little flourish on the ray's body – it’s a simple gesture but it adds so much personality, like a signature. This piece reminds me a little of Odilon Redon's charcoal drawings, the way he used light and shadow to create these dreamlike images. Art's just an ongoing conversation, and it's great that we can all listen in.
Artwork details
- Medium
- drawing, pencil, graphite
- Location
- Rijksmuseum
- Copyright
- Rijks Museum: Open Domain
Tags
drawing
amateur sketch
light pencil work
thin stroke sketch
pencil sketch
incomplete sketchy
landscape
figuration
personal sketchbook
sketch
pen-ink sketch
pencil
graphite
sketchbook drawing
sketchbook art
initial sketch
Comments
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About this artwork
This is a drawing of a stingray by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, and it's like looking at a fleeting thought, all done in pencil. The sketchiness lets you see how Dijsselhof was thinking, how he built up the image bit by bit. I’m really drawn to the contrast between the dense, almost scribbled shading around the ray, and the clean lines defining its form. It’s like the ray is emerging from a cloud of graphite. The texture feels immediate, you can almost feel the tooth of the paper. Look at the little flourish on the ray's body – it’s a simple gesture but it adds so much personality, like a signature. This piece reminds me a little of Odilon Redon's charcoal drawings, the way he used light and shadow to create these dreamlike images. Art's just an ongoing conversation, and it's great that we can all listen in.
Comments
Be the first to share your thoughts about this work.