The Huge Image: Rick Shaefer’s Giant-Scale Drawings

With an infusion of influences each previous and current, the supersized drawings of Rick Shaefer—the Juror of Awards for the 16^th Strokes of Genius 16 Drawing Competitors —draw their energy from the lively, unfastened, energetic line he makes primarily with compressed charcoal in pencil type.

An air of historical past hangs across the drawings of Rick Shaefer, as if they could have been made at some indeterminate level in centuries previous. Bucolic landscapes with fulsome bushes and distant vistas is likely to be a part of the identical idyllic and considerably fantasized world beloved of Flemish masters like Pieter Breughel the Elder (ca 1525–63) or Joos de Momper the Youthful (1564–1635). Alternatively, a few of the material feels fairly modern, with photographs of endangered species and compositions with pointed political references. Moreover, the overall snap and power of the work appears very a lot of this second. 

Most of all, the large, even spectacular, scale of the drawings—some as massive as 19 toes throughout—locations them squarely within the fashionable age. These drawings, then, are works that borrow closely from historic methods and imagery, which then are refit and modified for modern use. Their tonality, with wealthy darks and pristine lights, initially means that engravings is likely to be the primary affect, however nearer examination reveals not one of the mechanical hatching that engravers make use of. Slightly, in Shaefer’s drawings, the tone is constructed with lively, unfastened and energetic line. It’s a line that not solely units tonal values but additionally describes type and creates highly effective graphic outlines. 

“I like engraving’s disciplined line work, however I solely mimic it sometimes for enjoyable,” says the artist. “It’s extra the scribbles and thrives of etching which have influenced my drawing type. I prefer to be extra gestural and spontaneous, laying down marks shortly and maintaining the tempo shifting.” Additional explaining how his work differs from engravings, he says, “Engraving, although fabulous, is manner too principled and disciplined for my private type. I like that individuals can stand up near my work and simply see a mass of scribbles after which again off and see the picture coalesce into an nearly photographic readability.” 

Strains of Conviction

As Shaefer first started engaged on his monumental drawings, he primarily discovered his material close to his house in Connecticut. “My first drawing on a big scale was of an oak that had fallen in a neighbor’s discipline after a storm,” he recollects. Whereas the picture of a fallen tree was an ideal technical automobile for the form of drawing he wished to do, that topic additionally fell in with the artist’s need to say one thing about his emotions for the pure world and our stewardship of it. He went on to make numerous massive drawings that includes members of endangered species, such because the American bison. 

“I attempt to make my work embody a way of urgency whereas, on the identical time, seem pretty nonetheless and presumably even considerably bucolic on the floor,” Shaefer says. “I really feel we’re heading down a rathole, an nearly inevitable spiral of misdeeds and mismanagement of our personal lot and that of the planet we name house. My animal items are cries for kinder and extra enlightened stewardship—a plea for us to share the planet, not simply subjugate and exploit it.” 

Huge Image Challenges

How precisely are these drawings constructed? “Typically I’ll make a unfastened examine simply to get the general composition,” says Shaefer. “Extra typically, I prefer to have bits of reference to work from as a framework. Typically I’ll do an entire picture montage of varied scraps pulled collectively so as to have a extra concrete visible earlier than me once I begin the precise drawing.” The artist finds good references, photographic or in any other case, useful—particularly for sure passages. “That manner, I really feel ‘lined’—protected to dive in,” he says. “Then, as soon as I’m totally underway, I can riff on the references and even ignore them.”

Scaling up from his sketches and references presents a little bit of a problem. The artist has tried utilizing grids however now avoids them. “The issue with a grid is eliminating it throughout the course of,” he says. In actual fact, with or with no grid, he finds that creating a reasonably detailed preliminary sketch or define on his drawing floor could be problematic. “I discover these too constrictive, too limiting, and so they appear to get in the best way of the spontaneity of the ultimate mark-making,” says Shaefer. “I choose very unfastened, very ephemeral and light-weight marks on the floor, simply sufficient to orient me, so I do know the place bigger parts ought to sit.” 

Inserting these guiding marks may contain merely measuring with a ruler to determine the place one or two salient factors within the composition fall. These fastened positions imply that the drawing gained’t get too far out of hand as soon as the method begins. “Then I can seek advice from the preparatory sketch or reference in a recent manner that permits vagaries of the second to occur,” says the artist. “The magic moments and passages at all times appear to return from the intestine or spontaneous thrives slightly than overly deliberate and charted procedures.”

Supplies and Strategies

Shaefer normally attracts with paper-wrapped compressed charcoal. As a result of that medium smudges simply, he takes nice care with the place of his hand whereas working. Being right-handed, he begins within the prime left-hand nook and progressively works his manner throughout the piece, constructing every part significantly as he travels down towards the underside right-hand nook. When utilizing media aside from charcoal, he’ll wander about on the floor extra freely. Often he’ll return into a bit utilizing black ink, working into the darks to create higher richness and distinction. 

Drawing on such a big scale additionally brings the problem of presentation. A lot of Shaefer’s work is made utilizing artificial papers, which he then fixes closely in order that the works could be displayed unframed. He pierces a few of the very massive items with grommets, to allow them to be hung within the method of a tapestry. Just lately he has been doing extra work on conventional paper that have to be framed behind glass.

The artist’s provides embrace: