William Kentridge’s style is easily apparent through his many works highlighted in Drawing in Passing with rather signature features. The medium, movement, texture, and the very nature of the work build upon each other to create a very unique result.
The medium of choice is charcoal, both brushed and drawn. The light, fast flourishes of the brush and the swift flicks of his wrist create a fluidity through each piece, even in individual still frames. The fact that it is animated adds to this effect. The final piece has a literal movement, with characters and effects animated into a film. The traces left behind due to erasing create a history of the story, creating timestamps of each frame within the animation. Even looking at the final frame- …show more content…
The lines are done quickly, not necessarily smoothly, and a raw sense is gained. The sketchiness lends itself to an organic feeling, smudges and all.
Time, though already incorporated with the aforementioned ‘timestamps’, tied itself closely with the color of each piece. Because of the nature of charcoal, most of the pieces are in black and white monochrome, with the exception of Stereoscope in which blue is added. Black and white pieces create a classic throwback to old-fashioned television, where color was not available yet. Not only are Kentridge’s pieces in black and white, they’re animated! It’s as if they were asking to be associated with the rise of television!
While each piece is done quickly, the perspective is professional, crisp, and proper. There is a realism- or at least attempted- in the sense that each ‘set’ is representational to real life. There are few nods toward abstractism, though for the most part, they create real forms for abstract ideas, as in Stereoscope, where blue lines guide the eye from one scene to the next, bending the scene. Otherwise, the focus of each piece is to capture the movement and activity of the story. In Stereoscope, a near-perfect symmetry is acquired by placing two similar pictures
The medium of choice is charcoal, both brushed and drawn. The light, fast flourishes of the brush and the swift flicks of his wrist create a fluidity through each piece, even in individual still frames. The fact that it is animated adds to this effect. The final piece has a literal movement, with characters and effects animated into a film. The traces left behind due to erasing create a history of the story, creating timestamps of each frame within the animation. Even looking at the final frame- …show more content…
The lines are done quickly, not necessarily smoothly, and a raw sense is gained. The sketchiness lends itself to an organic feeling, smudges and all.
Time, though already incorporated with the aforementioned ‘timestamps’, tied itself closely with the color of each piece. Because of the nature of charcoal, most of the pieces are in black and white monochrome, with the exception of Stereoscope in which blue is added. Black and white pieces create a classic throwback to old-fashioned television, where color was not available yet. Not only are Kentridge’s pieces in black and white, they’re animated! It’s as if they were asking to be associated with the rise of television!
While each piece is done quickly, the perspective is professional, crisp, and proper. There is a realism- or at least attempted- in the sense that each ‘set’ is representational to real life. There are few nods toward abstractism, though for the most part, they create real forms for abstract ideas, as in Stereoscope, where blue lines guide the eye from one scene to the next, bending the scene. Otherwise, the focus of each piece is to capture the movement and activity of the story. In Stereoscope, a near-perfect symmetry is acquired by placing two similar pictures