A Rule To Remember

Less is more. That is a rule of art I have learned from my father who was both a writer and an illustrator. I remember him sitting at his desk drawing new versions of the same sketch over and over again. Often several days went by before he was satisfied with his work. My dad's ideal was to reduce a face, an object, a movement to one single line. As a kid I didn't understand this. I regarded already the very first drawing as a masterwork. Many years later I learned that the great Henri Matisse had a similar ambition, painting the same picture again and again, making it less and less realistic, reducing it sometimes to only a few expressive lines and areas. I try to do the same when writing.