Donny's Blog

Egon Schiele is in my opinion one of the best draughtsmen in history. I've been thinking about how when he was active around the early 1900s, that drawing was still a widely marketable skill. Though photography was growing in importance, drawings and illustrations were still dominant in newspapers and magazines. It's amazing that they used to send artists to draw sketches for newspaper stories as we send photographers out today. Vogue magazine was still using illustrations for their covers and featured drawing for inside the magazine too. Erté had multiple contracts to illustrate covers for Harper's Bazaar and Charles Dana Gibson's drawings defined the standard of feminine beauty for which he was accorded celebrity status and pay. Before the advent of television and before the rise of the motion picture, I'd imagine painting and drawings were kind of a big deal and had a larger cultural presence and importance than they do today. They were what television ...

Hope you're having a good one. I'm taking the day off from posting and will be back tomorrow. I've got something big planned for later in the month too, so stay tuned. ...from PBS: THE ORIGINS OF LABOR DAY In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed...that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it." "Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society." -Karl Marx

It's so nice outside. Decent temperature and a nice breeze. All the pretty girls are out walking their doggies. I think I'm going to go and draw outside. I'll be back Monday August 9th, with new drawings, perhaps some I do over this lovely weekend.