From the Mind of Gary

Gary Schattschneider had some thoughts to share about How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, and he said it would be okay for me to post them :) -- Bret

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Comments, Musings and Observations on How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by someone who has been referred to as the phantom designer, not very social, that "old guy", a transformer, and compared to everything from a grizzly bear to a teddy bear —take your pick.

First of all, I am extremely grateful to persons in my past—mainly some of my college instructors as well as my design mentor. They have been responsible for introducing me to @85% of the things that are suggested and/or talked about in the book (except juggling and fitness!). Please don’t take my comments as boasting but I was totally blown away by the book when I realized it was a real justification of my beliefs, ideals, and creative goals I have been personally trying to achieve and well as pass them on to my students in ALL of my classes. I hope the following comments clarify some of these points.

Even before I went to college, IBM brought the da Vinci exhibit of models of his inventions, machines etc. to exhibit at the Rochester Art Center. (I’m assuming these are the same that are now housed in the da Vinci museum in Italy that are mentioned in the beginning of the book) I still remember visiting this exhibit a number of times being curious and fascinated by them at the same time.

ABOUT DRAWING
My first Beginning Drawing Text in college was "The Natural Way to Draw" by Kimon Nicolaides which sets out a one year drawing program in detail, day by day. I truly believe that drawing is a matter of observation and what comes out on paper is a result of that observation and brain process. In other words you are making decisions with the brain even before your hand/pencil or charcoal touches the paper. When I hear students say they "can’t even draw a straight line" or they are going to start "sketching" I kind of bristle and correct them immediately. First of all straight lines are boring and can be done easier with a ruler, computer, CAD or whatever. Second, "sketching" implies that you have not really studied and or observed what you are going to try to draw. In my college drawing class we always had to carry a "Sketch Book" (I know ….a bad choice of words) which, in essence, was our visual AND written journal of our life during the time we were in the class before and beyond. Unfortunately the Art Department had the prerogative of keeping any student work they wanted for the "permanent collection"—so I have an entire sketch book filled with drawings of chickens that I did one week-end at my college roommate’s farm somewhere at the St. Cloud State University Art Department. I also used those drawings as a basis for a very large painting of a group of chickens that ended up at my college roommate’s parent’s house. So, I do not know where it ended up either. (da Vinci studied animals and their movement in detail according to the book)

A couple of drawing/painting exercises that da Vinci and Nicolaides and I practice are: 1)Observing your work in a mirror which gives an entirely different perspective on the work. Another suggestion would be to turn the painting upside down or sideways and work on it that way for a couple of days. A number of years ago when the Guthrie Theatre was going to do "Dr. Faustus" the set designer brought in the set model --a very detailed linear outline of a Gothic-like structure that was to be made out of steel tubing. After a few minutes discussion, the director suggested they turn the model upside down. And so they did and so it was produced! ( adapting to change da Vinci?) Who knew????.

I also like to take works in progress and set them around my house. That allows as you go about your usual tasks to "suddenly" come upon the painting or drawing and allows yet another perspective. Certainly the taking time away from the work is a very healthy suggestion as well.
Another drawing exercise that I think backs up the theory that drawing and decisions take place in the brain is to set up a still life and use the opposite hand then you are used to using. Probably 85% of the time you will come up with a better drawing because you have had to observe more carefully what you are doing. (or in da Vinci’s terms ambidexterity?)

When the book talks about developing your tactile senses, some of this can also be achieved with 2 drawing exercises. 1) study what you are going to draw, the describe it with a single line---varying the widths of the line to describe the 3-dimisional quality of the object. One key here is to imagine you are touching the object itself to make the decisions about the quality of line you will use 2) place your pencil on the paper and draw the object or objects without lifting your pencil from the page or looking at your drawing, and again, closely observing the objects you are drawing.

I challenge my students with the statement that if they are willing to put forth the time and effort I can teach them to draw adequately in a 6 month period. Of course they are skeptical and no one has ever taken me up on the offer. One other thing with which I try to raise their curiosity is to ask them "Who was the better draughtsperson ….who could realistically draw a person or place—Pablo Picasso or Norman Rockwell (of course very few even know who Rockwell was) but after describing some of his work most agree that Rockwell was the more realistic artist—when in fact early Picasso drawings are realistically more descriptive and better executed—it’s just that he chose to explore different approaches with his ability---but in every Picasso work there is an underlying structure to all of his work. It’s similar to students saying they have no need to learn grammar when the poet e e cummings didn’t use it. Yet, as I’m sure you are aware, there is a reason the capitalization and punctuation is left out—again an underlying structure.

I consider myself a landscape painter (even at this point in my life it seems a little presumptuous of me to say that and even to put it in print is a little scary) I totally believe with da Vince that if you observe and study nature you will discover many many rewards in all kinds of media as well as in your own life. I think Van Gogh also followed this very closely. An inspiring book about the theory and practice and drawing is Van Gogh’s Letters to Theo which is a collection of letters Van Gogh wrote to his brother about the struggles of trying to capture nature in drawing and paint. In my opinion, it’s almost a drawing course in and of itself.

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An interjection: I liked Sharon’s comment about da Vinci dying in France ("smart man")…..but this was also the country whose military used the model of his horse statute for target practice….???? Hm-m-m-m.

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ABOUT MUSIC
Much to my surprise all of the classical periods of music and examples from them where familiar to me with the exception of the opera Aida. I’ve designed to set for La Boheme three different times and have worked on other productions of the same opera. I am probably most lacking in knowledge and exposure to Jazz, but have worked on theatre productions Cole (musical revue of Cole Porter songs) and Oh Coward! (musical revue of the songs of Noel Coward some of which are also included in his plays such as Private Lives and Hay Fever…..and yes I saw Elvis and The Beatles on Ed Sullivan (and delivered flowers to Ed Sullivan when he was hospitalized at St, Mary’s in 1963 and I was working at a local flower shop!)

I’m not sure I am able to discern the various changes in the various musical compositions that the book talks about but do enjoy listening to classical music. My concern is that I see fewer and fewer young people interested in and or playing classical music and fewer symphony orchestras in our culture…is this the demise of classical music as we know it? I do have a question that maybe one of the group can help me with. I think there is a strong correlation between understanding mathematics and the ability to play a musical instrument. I am very "math" challenged and tried to learn to play a musical instrument to no avail. But I have made up for lack of math skills in other ways. (You can’t design and build stage scenery for 40 years without a "system" of you own). Just last semester when, I was in a temporary office with math people all around me, I posed a question to one of them which was…."If I have a round piece of plywood that I want to put legs on to turn into a table for use on stage, and there is no center on the circle marked, how do I locate the 4 leg positions?" He was very gracious and showed me diagrams and formulas that included pi and figured it out within 1/132 of an inch. I certainly respect his ability even though it made very little sense to me. So I suggested tracing the tabletop on a piece of brown wrapping paper, cut it out and fold it in fourths lay it back down on the plywood and mark the position of the 4 legs. He agreed that was probably easier!!! I presented the same problem to my Stagecraft class and not one person came up with any correct answer. In a broader sense I think this is something we, as instructors, need to remember about different learning styles of out students (and I didn’t pick this up from an education class).

The book also suggests learning another language, and about other cultures. Again I throw this question to Sharon. Do you think it takes a special type of person with a "special" type of ear/hearing (I’m not exactly sure what I mean here) to learn another language, or can anyone do it? I had two years of German in high school with "Doc" Most and it was a real struggle for me; I really couldn’t survive it and finally gave up. I never did get through Emil und Das Detective or Die Weisse Rose. I have the utmost respect for "Doc" Most as a teacher and a person, and one of my nephews had him as an instructor and was really successful, so I’m not blaming the instructor!

End Part One