visual grammar

                Matisse drawing "Upside down face" from Poèmes de Mallarmé               arc circle model One of the illustrations for Mallarmé's poetry collection. Since there is no title, I call it ``Upside down long-haired woman's face from the poems of Mallarmé''. Many people put their favorite works in clipping files and keep them in person. This work is a work that I do not get tired of seeing for fifty years. This is my personal criteria for a masterpiece. By making this model, I began to understand the secret of the work. It consists of 17 circles of different sizes. The largest circle (light blue-green) forms the left cheek, The second largest circle (purple) forms the right cheek. Six circles intersect to the left of the bridge of the nose.   The smaller circles are next to each other, creating a wave-like motion. It has an effect like a musical phrase.   Tracing with your ...

   Shunrou (Katsushika Hokusai) "Ichikawa Danjuro VI" c.1792/93 The Art Institute of Chicago   Sharaku "Fuwa Accompaniment by Ichikawa Danjuro VI" The Art Institute of Chicago Sharaku first started to draw Ookubi-e. So Shunro's okubi-e from the later period can easily show that the same technique was used. Though I have not found his Okubi-e, last time I found a full-length image of Shunro and Sharaku's Danjuro. I enlarged the head part of the two and compared them. All lines can be reproduced with arcs of limited number of circles. Three or more circles intersect on a point forming mesh pattern. The hair streaks are made of parts of the bundled circles. I didn't use the smallest circle for the details because the resolution is not good, but in the Ookubi-e, A more detailed structural analysis is possible.   Sharaku "The Edobei of Oniji Otani III" The circles are divided into three gr...