You Need to Cheat to Be An Artist

Countercultural as Robert Crumb, when talking about drawing, is no different from any other more orthodox great masters. The 1994 documentary Crumb recorded an interesting and instructive conversation between Robert Crumb and his son Jesse Crumb.

Robert Crumb (R): One thing you’ve learned is the importance of black. That’s good.

Jesse Crumb (J): Thanks, Pop.

R wanted to see more of Jesse Crumb’s drawings in his sketch book, but J stopped him. They started talking about a photo of a lunatic woman and their drawings based on the photo.

J: Okay, enough. So why did you choose this figure in particular?

R: I like these photos. They are powerful for some reason.

J: This one was easy to draw.

R: Finally picked attractive ones. Some of them are ugly, you know. In my drawing of her, I made her cuter than she really is … because I acquired the cuteness curse when I worked at American Greetings … which I can’t shake.

J: You got the tilt of the head right. That’s hard to do.

R: You have to really … the proportion of this to this … is it the same or shorter? I did a lot of erasing at first.

R pointed to J’s drawing and said: You haven’t learned how to cheat yet to get the desired effect you want.

J apparently didn’t get the meaning of “cheat”: Like what? Draw over the top of a Xerox?

R: You want to capture a certain thing about this woman’s face. A certain defiance you see in there.

J: Yeah, I didn’t get it.

R: Exaggerate those little things that give her that look, you know. Like the way her teeth slightly show. She’s got a slight sneer.

J: I try to do that, but it’s hard with pencil.

R: Just exaggerate, cheat a little. Like the tilt of the head … and the sneer, you would emphasize that. You have to consciously make a decision … of what you want to bring out in the face.

J: I did that here, but it still didn’t work out.

R: It’s very subtle in that photo. It’s very subtle. My drawing doesn’t capture the hate.

J: It does in a way. You’ve got that open mouth. That’s the key to the thing.

R: That sneer, you know?

J: Baring the teeth.

R: Yeah, that’s key.

R: They obviously ordered her to sit down and don’t move. They’re going to take her picture, and just sit there. You can see she doesn’t like it. It’d be good if you could take life drawing.

J: You didn’t go to art school, and look, you’re rich and famous.

R laughed and said: We’re not talking about rich and famous. We’re talking about learning to draw.

Somehow I was amused too.