Chapter 4 | THE BROKEN DRAWING STYLE

View the drawing of a woman looking back by Georg Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923). At the bottom the drawing is only schematically set up in loose energetic straight lines. In her upper body Breitner also started with the same ‘broken drawing style‘, but the drawing has already been further developed there.

If you want to draw a model (real life or from an image), the broken drawing style can apparently be a good tool: you first draw the shapes/outlines in loose (broken) straight lines. Later, you connect the lines and create smooth curves where necessary. The broken drawing style was already used in the Renaissance (c. 1350-1600).

Exercise: Choose a model (human or animal) to apply the broken drawing style to. Just xperiment with this technique. On large formats (e.g. 50×60) choose Siberian chalk, conté chalk or charcoal.