Drawings and Prints

“The core of the Slade syllabus was to do with trying to see clearly. The actual marks you put on paper or canvas were not prescribed as they are in How-To-Do-It books. You made whatever marks you thought most clearly reported what you had seen. We were repeatedly told ‘there is no one way to draw’. Our tutors all drew differently. Some discouraged certain clichés of mark-making like shading with the side of the pencil instead of making lines with a sharp point. ‘Simple’ marks were preferred to ‘elegant’ ones which were to drawing what affected mannerisms are to behaviour. I think that imprinted itself very strongly on me, that the picture should behave without affectation. The nub of it was we were able to draw from 9 to 4 and then every evening there were classes if we wanted them. We were like ballet dancers or pianists or tennis players who just did so much of it that we eventually began to feel, as the years rolled by, that we were beginning to get the hang of it.”

– John Jones