Water droplet
Category: Drawing
Erasing
A few years ago I had a disagreement with some drawing researchers about erasing mistakes. They said all lines are important and should always be kept. I don’t think we were talking about the same kinds of drawings, or if they draw at all.
Yesterday I was drawing with an eraser, adding highlights not removing mistakes. That reminded me of the odd discussion. Today I’ve been moving lettering around. Lots of lines have been changing position. I’m glad I’m not forced to keep all the previous versions as it would’ve been a solid block of lines by now.
On the cusp
The moon had a yellow orange glow around it the other evening. I thought I’d add a similar line around a drawing. Do the stars dictate our fate? Who can tell?
This is a little drawing, about 9 x 12cm. Various colours of biro and caran d’ache crayons.
Spring Equinox
I tried to draw a larger version of my little doodle, it looked too stagnant. Instead, I enlarged the biro drawing by 283%. Much better.
I didn’t plan to make this print, the doodle happened over breakfast. The sun’s face will have a beard made of flames, sparks, leaves, feathers, petals and whatever else comes up.
Tree
First drawing of 2021 in the shadow of the window frame.
The Goose and the Common
This began as a sketch for a black and white linocut a few years ago. Various interruptions later, it’s been coloured with pencils, biros and watercolour crayons. Not finished yet…
Dereliction
A bit of urban sketching, except it’s drawn from a photo I took on a sunnier day last week.
I wonder if others see an attractive corner shop, or maybe a cafe. It might be that people like me, who cannot see the ‘unique’ history of the town I live in, can only see derelict buildings here. Optimists will see the potential for improvement.
This building should be a time travel portal, or at least a gateway to another dimension.
Archives
Sorting out the room that could be a studio. Found an old sketchbook. I remember sitting in the garden drawing these sheets.
When I was a teenager, a swarm of bees appeared at the end of the garden. The neighbours were very nervous but the bees were only interested in themselves. A beekeeper arrived to collect the swarm. They seemed very pleased to see him, crawling all over his white suit. I had been happily taking photos from underneath the cloud of bees. I wouldn’t have ventured so close to them if I’d known they interacted with humans like that.
Can’t see the wood for the…
Drawing at Art College
Drawing at Art College. Mostly mark-making, none of that precise decorative nonsense.
There was an incident one lunchtime when I was drawing a sewing pattern on the back of an old print. My drawing tutor looked at the lines on the paper and said: “This could be better!”.
I explained it would be a shape to chalk around. It had an arrow to indicate the direction of fabric grain and various clues for dart position and seam allowance. Perfect!
He furrowed his brow and continued to insist that the drawing needed more depth, more information for the viewer. In that moment I felt the full weight of the futility of art theory. A printmaking tutor arrived. He rescued the situation by explaining the difference between functional drawing and Fine Art Drawing in a few words. I still wish we had drawn an infographic for clarity.
Life drawing every Monday. The life drawing room could be a place to hide, according to some painters. Presumably landscape drawing offers a similar chance to escape from a stuffy studio environment(?).
We began with quick exercises to loosen the wrists, usually the model moved around or through a fixed structure. Some models practiced yoga while we drew their repetitive movements.
I have spent time in some incredibly dull life rooms, which involved drawing a person standing still in a pastel coloured room. Ideally, there is good light on the subject, who has taken an interesting pose.
Ideally, the work made during the day bears some resemblance to a human form. It’s easy to spot errors because the drawn person appears unable to function with those spindly limbs or crooked neck. Drawing a naked human means there are no useful clothing folds to mask a dodgy angle.
As an Art student, listening to irrelevant waffle, I often wondered:
Is there any other subject that can be taught by people who possess very little relevant skill?
berry daines 