The document discusses mark making techniques used in historical drawings. It analyzes 15 drawings from well-known artists such as Bellini, Carpaccio, and Greuze. The drawings demonstrate a variety of mark making including: fine lines to show texture and shape, hatching for tone and shadows, curved lines to depict form, and washes blended with lines. Studying these techniques provides ideas for the author's own drawing practice, such as using fine lines to refine figures and experimenting with different mark making styles.

1. Mark Making in
Drawings from the Past
SHANNON LEWIS

2. I’ve decided to look at old drawings done by well known artists to see how
they used mark making in their sketches. Most of them use it to show
texture, shape and tone to help them with their later pieces of creating
completed oil paintings. From looking in ‘Raphael to Renoir- Drawings from
the Collection of Jean Bonna’ I saw many observational sketch's which used
quick lines and hatching: some are fine lines whereas others would be
rough as they just wanted to capture a moment.

3. Study of a Bull
Giovanni Bellini
Pen and brown ink
This appears to be an incomplete study as it
lacks toning on the head – unless Bellini
wanted to make his main focus of the
drawing on the structure of the bull’s body.
He shows the form of the cow by using
quick fine lines that follow direction of the
shape, sometimes cross hatching to make
areas darker. The tone he used also helps
create form as you can see where a possible
light source can hit onto the bull – coming
in from the top left. He also added a
textured background to make the cow stand
out on the paper (could possibly help create
a stronger range of tones on the bull).

4. Torso of a Nude Man
Vittore Carpaccio 1465-1520
Brush and black ink on faded blue
paper
Like the bull, this drawing also uses dark lines to show
muscle. However this one includes light marks as well to
show form. A larger tonal range seems better to have as it
means you can show both subtle structure and heavy dents
and curves. What I also find quite interesting in this drawing
is that the marks create a texture which you wouldn’t
normally get on a torso – almost fur like or a layer of waves
following around the body.

5. Landscape: Farm Buildings on a Ridge, a
Haystack, and a Flock of Birds Circling
Above
Baccio della Porta 1472-1517
Pen and brown ink on white paper
This light landscape sketch was kept very minimal and
uses mark making to suggest direction and form of the
scene. For instance there are little dashes going
downwards at an angle following the wall. And also
small marks are used to show the shape of the trees
and how their leaves grow. He didn’t get an entire
scene in the drawing but managed to get down enough
information of the landscape.

6. The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Fra Bartolommeo 1472-1517
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown
wash, highlighted with white gouache, on
ocher washed paper
With this drawing there is a mixture of having a
complete, refined drawing with rough marks
suggesting a background of trees and clouds.
This makes me think that it might show
dimension in the drawing – main figures in
forefront has to be clear, blurred trees in
background as they are not in focus. It can also
mean that the drawing’s purpose is to focus on
the figures.
The figures still show hatching but they are much
smoother as the lines are finer and closer
together.

7. Two Standing Men 1519
Girolamo di Romano 1484-1487
Black chalk and faint traces of red
chalk
In this drawing there are longer marks on the figures,
creating form and heavier shadows . It is very much a
rough sketch capturing a moment. I seem to be
finding a pattern in these drawings with how mark
making is associated with making quick sketches.

8. Horseman of the Apocalypse 1550
Domenico Campagnola 1500-1564
Pen and brown ink
Like the ‘Study of a Bull’, this
drawing uses mark making to
form the shape of muscles.
However the thing I found
most interesting of this
drawing is the sky as there are
long marks the suggest the
shape and movement od the
clouds.
Also I like the way the
clothing is done as well
because the crowd of people
look merged together.

9. The Holy Family with Shepherds and Angels 1523-24
Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) 1503-1540
Pen and brown ink, brush and grey-brown wash, over some traces of
black chalk
The mark making used in this drawing is
limited but made up of curved lines, much
different to the other drawings I have seen
that use sharp straight lines. The curved lines
are unusual and make the figures seem
bubbly.
I like the mixture of shadows and lines as they
work together well to create form – the mark
making wasn’t used for tone but for shape.
The marks appear to be done quickly as things
seem merged together: not a clear distinction
between the angel wings and the plant behind
it.

10. Seated Angel 1594
Giovanni Battista Trotti 1556-1619
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, highlighted with white gouache,
squared in black chalk, on blue paper
There is a strong use of mark making in the
highlights of this drawing which gives it a
larger tonal range – a bit like the ‘Torso of a
Nude Man’. This piece reminds me however of
Henry Moore’s use of wax in his figure
drawings because of how much it stands out
against the rest of the drawing: a very bright
white.

11. A Wild Boar Piglet 1578
Hans Hoffmann 1545 – 1591 or 1592
Watercolour and body colour on vellum
This drawing has very different marks
compared to the other drawings I
have looked at as the lines are
extremely fine showing each little
strand of fur on the piglet. The
shadow is also made up of marks all
going in one direction which makes it
look a bit furry.
This type of drawing would definitely
take a lot longer time to draw
compared to other mark making
drawings as it is more dense.

12. Study of an Old Tree 1663-1670?
Gillis Neyts 1626-1687
Pen and brown ink
This drawing is busy with marks making you have a
proper look at it to know everything that’s there. It
is hard to separate the trunk and braches from each
other and the leaves. It would have been very time
consuming to draw this with all the marks, as he
kept to the same thickness of pen as well. However,
it is because he used a thin pen through it all that
makes it scratchy and busy. To show tone he made
the marks close together and hatching for the
darker areas and then left wider gaps between
marks to show the lighter areas.

13. Study of a Reclining Nude
Charles de La Fosse 1636-1716
Black, red and white chalk on light brown paper
This drawing uses subtle mark
making to help show the form of
the figure: the marks would follow
around the body, wrapping around
all the curves, bumps and limbs the
figure has. It also has a way of
blending colours together by
putting different coloured marks
next to each other – creating an
illusion of using a larger range of
chalk.

14. Pouting Girl 1760-65
Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1725-1805
Red chalk
This drawing has lines going across the face
shaping each of the features and its form. This
technique also helps give you a better
understanding of the volume due to the way the
lines would curve. You can also tell that the main
focus of the drawing was the face (this is what the
artist wanted to learn) as the clothing an the girl is
kept simple and uses a thick line – less care
compared to the face.

15. Half Length Portrait of a Young Boy 1818-19
Theodore Gericault 1791-1824
Graphite, pen and brown ink and wash
Like ‘The Holy Family with Shepherds and
Angels’, this drawing uses a wash to create
the main shadow. It however is still heavily
worked on with thinner lines to enhance
the shadow. The marks curve on the face to
create the form but are just straight on the
clothing: the clothing doesn’t matter too
much to the artist.

16. From looking in this book I found many ways of marking making which I found
rather interesting and useful to know about for my practise. For instance, using fine
lines to shape around things, hatching and ink washes for shadows, mixing colours
by putting marks close to each other, use many small marks to build up a drawing
to give it a busy atmosphere, and also mix both thick lines and thin lines together
to show what’s my focus of the drawing. I’m planning on definitely experimenting
all these different techniques in my work and to help refine my ideas and subjects.
For instance, I need more ideas to how I can draw the figure and I feel like using
finer lines would work very well.
Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna, The Metropolitan Museum of Art