Drawing Conclusions
Throughout his student years in art college and his architectural studies Holger spent a lot of his time in the liferoom, focussing on life drawing, modelling ecorché and anatomical studies. While drawing was then essiantially a development tool, it also fed directly into Holger's lithographic and intaglio work. Helping to understand complex sculptural problems, it is also an essential tool in everyday sculpture practice. Beside its character as a functional medium, it is, however, also an important medium in its own right. Holger has used charcoal on large gesso panels for his work on curachs and a work cycle, interpreting the Voyage of Bran. The work was developed for a touring exhibition in 2006/7 (see images below).
Henry Moore once referred to the importance of drawing in studying the human figure for the sculptor:
“In my opinion, long and intense study of the human figure is the necessary foundation for a sculptor. The human figure is most complex and subtle and difficult to grasp in form and construction, and so it makes the most exacting form for study and comprehension. A moderate ability to ‘draw’ will pass muster in a landscape or tree, but even the untrained eye is more critical of the human figure-because it is ourselves.”
