Paint the flying spirit of the bird rather than its feathers.
Robert HenriRead
Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Drawing is about expressing your personal perspective rather than just replicating reality.
This quote by Robert Henri emphasizes the importance of personal interpretation in the act of drawing. Instead of merely copying what is in front of you, true artistry involves capturing your unique feelings and insights about the subject, making the artwork a reflection of your own understanding and experiences.
Themes
DrawingArtExpressionPerspectiveCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
During a community art workshop, to inspire participants to be original in their drawings.
More from Robert Henri
All quotes βKnow what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. All the past can help you.
Robert HenriRead
The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.
Robert HenriRead
You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.
Robert HenriRead
After all, the goal is not making art. It is living a life. Those who live their lives will leave the stuff that is really art.
Robert HenriRead
Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.
Robert HenriRead
Similar quotes
You know, once you've had that guitar up so loud on the stage, where you can lean back and volume will stop you from falling backward, that's a hard drug to kick.
David GilmourRead
The function of the artist is to make people like life better than they have before.
Kurt VonnegutRead
A good producer brings out the best in the artist he's working with. You shouldn't be able to listen to something and say, 'So-and-so produced this album.'
Eddie Van HalenRead
I think everyone who makes movies should be forced to do television. Because you have to finish. You have to get it done, and there are a lot of decisions made just for the sake of making decisions. You do something because it's efficient and because it gets the story told and it connects to the audience.
Joss WhedonRead
The biggest thrill you can have is to tell people one of your songs, and have them be able to hum it.
Marvin HamlischRead
As a director, I design every movie to be true to itself, and damn it if they like it, and damn it if they don't.
Guillermo Del ToroRead