Patterning and flattening

Reducing a scene to flat patterned areas can be very striking, as this (unfinished) drawing by Peter shows clearly. It is a fascinating development of a sketch of two poses by Sandra (see 1st Feb post).

Everything goes one-dimenional with this style, and though the forms become harder to read, the effect can be exhilarating. Peter says he quite enjoys the work entailed in something like this, which is a good thing because it can take ages. There are lots of technical tricks to work out, like seeing how much information you can withhold (edges for example) without losing readability.

Here’s a full-colour fellow-traveller on the Pattern road – Edouard Vuillard: