Massachusetts College of Art and Design - Palette and Pen Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Composition Ralph Ayer Senior Drawing and Painting

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p ROBABLY most art students start out on their careers with the object of becoming painters or illustrators. As they begin to explore the many ramifications of the art field, however, many turn aside into branches of work more suited to their individual tastes and abihties. Some, nevertheless, persist in their original intention and to this group the draw- ing and painting course offers a particular appeal. In spite of modernist teaching, sound draughtsmanship and abihty to draw the figure are still in great demand both in the commercial and fine art worlds. In recognition of this the student is given continual training in drawing and painting from both the head and the full figure. Gradually he acauires a working knowledge of the principles of construction and a ground work for tuture development. As he proceeds to the intricacies ol anatomy and the problem of color he loses whatever over-confidence he may have had and realizes the magnitude of the task before him. Yet there comes also a consciousness of the fascinating possibilities for expression, and the absorbing intellectual problem presented solely in the study of the head and figure. Your dyed-in-the-wool portrait painter, confirmed in the art for art’s sake tradition, will find this study, and rightly so, an end in itself. There are others, however, who are interested in figure work chiefly as a factor in composition and illustration. To these students the work in illustration provides means for experimentation. The best of modern book illustration tends toward a decorative type of handhng, allowing greater freedom in the choice of medium. Executing de-

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