Henry Yan Experience

I'm a bit late posting my thoughts and reflections from my trip to Ann Arbor for a Henry Yan drawing workshop, April 8-10. I have been drawing on and off my whole life and found that I still learned a few new ideas to help me progress, as well as, a few familiar ideas that I pushed to the back of my mind. Teachings, from decades ago, were pulled out from the recesses of my mind to front and center of my consciousness. Learning is truly life long, and a reminder, from time-to-time is a good thing.

It's amazing to watch a master draw. What Henry Yan accomplishes within five minutes is incredible and inspiring. Unfortunately, I cannot post any images of his work nor demos since he unfortunately has been the victim of theft via the internet. Someone copied works found online and created a book without his knowledge and permission. Artists are sole proprietors. When someone from a foreign country does such an act - feeling that they are immune to US copyright laws, it is directed at ONE artist's well being, security, and causes a loss of income which is destructive in ways generally not considered by the foreign company. One artist cannot compete against foreign companies offering copies of work at a cost much cheaper than the individual artist could offer. The artist also loses out on any royalties that are rightfully his. I understand Henry's hesitancy to open his work to image, but unfortunately we all lose out when sharing stops due to theft.

Overall, I appreciate Henry's reverse process of starting with a soft charcoal pencil to fully draw out the figure on smooth to medium toothed paper, and using soft vine/willow charcoal on top to smooth out the drawing and prepare the work for dramatic smudging. I also realized that I need to be more aware of the core shadow on a subject and exaggerate the light more when I am not drawing in ideal situations. When I returned to my Friday night portrait group, I focused on this idea by increasing the contrast on Makanya Smith's forehead and hair.

Henry is meticulous about keeping his pencil sharpened at all times. He uses the point for fine lines and the side for shading. He goes over this in his book.  I highly recommend getting it from his website. It's a minor investment which is highly worthwhile. A link to his site is off to the side on this blog. Save your money and get it.

Here are a couple of my five minute sketches on a full sheet of 18"x24" smooth newsprint. They're OK, but not a Yan. I noticed him drawing while everyone was sketching. He drew four five minute sketches on one sheet of paper. They were fabulous. So much information and rhythm was captured in five minutes. So, I started working smaller.

I realized that I need to work on the feeling and quality of my linework. Keeping my tools sharpened and in top quality should help. Good linework leads to a rythmic quality in the drawing. We can learn the steps to a dance and follow the footwork, but unless you throw in some movement of the hips, shoulders and arms, moving the whole body, a dancer can look stiff. I've found this analogy is true with drawing as well. Each mark needs to be meaningful and well executed.

Here is my final drawing attempting to use Henry's technique. I drew the face last and decided to crop the photo so it would be less distracting from my explanation of what I learned. Henry was drawing about ten feet away so I stopped by to watch how he handled a very similar pose to mine. Originally, I drew the underwear much darker. When I saw that Henry only indicated it, I realized how being less literal, picking and choosing is important. Does it add to the mood and effectiveness of your drawing? Yes, then add it. If not, minimize or remove it. As artists, we can change whatever we like. The actual model or subject matter will be gone, but the drawing continues on. Choose well.