Michelangelo was not only sculptor, painter and architect, but also a writer of note. He once gave this advice to painters: ‘Painting most closely approaches perfection when it most closely resembles sculpture.’
In today’s high-tech world, painters have access to equipment that the Old Masters would have coveted. Cameras can save us hours of tedious reference sketching; projectors can reduce the time it takes to place objects in a composition. But painters who rely on such aids, lacking the confidence and skills gained by freehand drawing and a grounding in Anatomical Drawing, soon find themselves in trouble.
They are trapped in the same dangers as that unfortunate generation of school kids who were the victims of experimentation by well-meaning education reformers. Trying to make learning easier and more fun, they introduced ‘whole word recognition’ in place of boring old spelling. As a result, two generations of kids grew up lacking an ability to spell. Some people question if it matters. ‘After all, they can usually work out what the other person meant to say.’
- Author unknown
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