The Artist's Magazine, January/February 2012 - Artist's Network

Folds Through Art Historysimplify what I’m seeing?” “Should I changethe drapery?” The answers lie in appreciatingwhat folds can do for your design. Just as toodetailed a rendering of anatomy in the drawingof a figure is distracting, rendering everywrinkle in draped fabric can be confusing.When I’m drawing folds, I keep the followingfour directives in mind:1. Draw the big form first and work your wayto the smaller details. Move from the generalto the specific or from the simple tothe complex. In the initial lay-in, it’s alsoimportant to look for the underlying movementor gesture of the drapery. Establishingthe overall rhythm of the fabric is an importantstep in relating one part to another.2. Be on the lookout for angles and landmarksto help establish proportion. Landmarks arereference points where one plane changesinto another or where one edge ends andanother begins. They often relate to theunderlying structure and help amplifypoints of support or points of tension. Onceyou locate landmarks, you can establishcontour lines between them. As you developthe contours, you’ll identify and articulatespecific shapes—and then identify andconstruct the different folds.On a recent visit to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Iwalked through several galleries as I observed how artists had interpreteddrapery. It was fascinating to see how the character of draperyhas followed the different periods in art—and equally revealing to seehow painters and sculptors from different times and cultures used avariety of forms to express different aesthetics through the subordinationor dominance of certain folds.I noted distinct differences between Eastern and Western cultures,as well as between Classical and Romantic periods. Gothic artists, forinstance, placed strong emphasis on the zigzag and half-lock folds(on page 94), whereas Greek and Roman artists preferred the pipeand spiral folds (on pages 92 and 95). Renaissance artists emphasizedform-fitting garments that amplified the human figure while Baroqueartists disguised the figure by giving the drapery a life of its own. Andin Eastern cultures, the work was much more linear and simplified. Inan effort to strengthen the design, folds were often reduced to only thestraight and the curve.Something else I noticed was how these artists used folds in theircompositions. It was clear in the work of some artists that they preferredto articulate the male aesthetic in their use of drapery whileother artists wanted to stress the aesthetic of female form. Zigzag andhalf-lock folds are angular and therefore more “male” in their orientation.The spiral fold is much more lyrical and therefore “female” in itsorientation.The concept of opposites inherent in all design was strikinglyexpressed through the drapery in the works I observed. Most gooddesign involves the concept of opposites: light and dark, big and small,straight and curved, smooth and textured, soft and hard (edges), simpleand complex, warm and cool, opaque and transparent.The Fabric of Our LivesWhether you’re drawing the folds of a timeless tunic (at right) or a modernsports jersey (below), you’re dealing with folds. Drawing them well helps youmore accurately describe your fabric, as well as the subject beneath.Both photos by Hawkinson PhotographyJanuary/February 201293