Life Drawing Poses Gestures

My interview with Peter Falk

Dear Readers,

Five years ago, I had the opportunity to interview the actor Peter Falk at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown on the occasion of an exhibition of his life drawings.

The Butler frequently shows the work of celebrity artists. I pass up most of those exhibitions but chose to interview Falk because his work had an acuity of observation that, to me, bore a relationship to the craft and discipline and joy he brought to his work as an actor, particularly in his signature role as the TV detective Columbo.

Having read about Falk's death on Thursday at age 83, I thought I'd republish the interview, originally printed in The Plain Dealer on Oct. 10, 2006. I hope you enjoy it.

— It was a simple gesture, nothing more. But it was all the veteran actor Peter Falk needed to coax laughter from admirers at the Butler Institute of American Art.

Falk was giving an interview about an exhibition of his life drawings and self-portraits at the museum. When a reporter asked him which art museums he liked best, Falk said: “What’s the name of that famous museum in Paris? The Louvre? I went through that place in 20 minutes.”

Then he looked at his watch. That’s all it took. The gesture conjured an image of Falk as an impatient art lover. A small crowd of Butler staffers and interns who were listening to the interview cracked up.

Falk is beloved by millions of TV viewers for his most famous creation: the gravel-throated Detective Columbo. He also acted on Broadway and in films including “Murder, Inc.,” “A Pocketful of Miracles,” “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” and “The Great Race.”

But for more than three decades, he’s had a second career as an amateur artist who loves to draw from live models, particularly women, whom he calls “the most fascinating subject known to man.” In his recently published memoir, entitled “Just One More Thing,” after Columbo’s most famous line, Falk wrote: “My idea of heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast and spend the rest of the day drawing.”

Falk discovered life drawing in 1971 while acting on Broadway in Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” His schedule left him free in the mornings with nothing to do. On a whim one day, he walked into the Art Students League on West 57th Street in Manhattan, opened a classroom door and was transfixed.

Starrpoint: Contour VS Gesture Drawing

When I was taking my first drawing class, we all struggled with this. The teacher had set up a complicated still life, and tried to get us to do a continuous lines contour of what was there. Frankly, the exercise was a failure because none of us understood just what the teacher was trying to have us do. Now, years later, I look back at that class and realize just how hard explaining this can be. You are trying to say in words what is happening in the head. Contour drawing is much more than simply looking at something. You need to see it, feel it almost taste it. What you are going to do is draw this object without looking at the paper in one contineous line. Yes, keep your eyes on the object, not on your paper. Look at the object and decide on where the line will start. Pick a point that you decide is the beginning. Stare at that point until you convince yourself you are touching that point, thus your pencil becomes an extension of you. Wait until you believe that your pencil is touching the contour of this object. Yes, you can do this! You want your eye and your pencil to move at the same speed, and in union with each other. So your eye, and pencil are in concert. Without taking your eyes off the object, trace around the contours of it. When you complete one section, briefly look down and move your pencil to a new starting point, wait until you can feel the object in your mind, your pencil is on that object, then continue. This is the contour of the object. And the contours change if you shift position, so keep your head still. The exact opposite is gesture drawing. It is not about edges, but volume, movement; the fullness of the whole. This is a favorite method of mine when I can see people or animals move. It is about catching the action! Seizing the moment. Gesture drawings should be rapid, fluid and very expressive. Sometimes it just might be hard to see the object/subject in the activity! Let your pencil roam the paper, fill it with the action you see happening. Draw rapidly and continuously, in one fluid line what you see happening before your eyes. Susan Tschantz (my secret Idenity) worked as a mechanical drafter in the mineral processing industry. She has 10 years experience in producing exacting drawings for manufacture and building. Susan also has training in graphic design. She has used this training in the production of training and service manuals as well as producing Standard Operating Procedures and training materials.

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