Try thinking of it as mark making. I know I do! I was wandering through a sketch book, thinking about the way that, with practice, my mark making has become more sophisticated, so that I can, in fact, begin to express what I want with it. (In case you were wondering, that's not a function of talent; it's a function of practice. You too can do this thing. Trust me!)
Sometimes, of course, I just make marks for fun... like this one. To me, she looks like a girl in a new dress, not entirely sure of herself, wondering if she looks okay... but to you, she might seem something else entirely. And that is the joy of it all, to me, at least. It doesn't matter what I might have intended (nothing much, as it happens...just making marks, and then more marks, until I'd finished); what matters is what you see. Please do tell me what you see...
5 comments:
I see a very windy day, head down, battling against the wind. :)
Should have added: Do you think our mood/frame of mind affects the way we translate what we see in a piece?
Not that I'm feeling particularly windy at the moment *LOL*
But the weather here is very wet and windy at the moment. I wonder if it would have suggested something different to me had it been a hot summers day?
I think she is watching where she is stepping so she won't fall over the cat. Whenever I sit down I scribble and sketch...my Daddy did too.
Very good post. As an artist I feel I have the ability to draw, but not having sketched as much as I should over the past several years I don't find my "mark" to be very sophisticated. The speed of the writing utensil, the way it lifts up at the end of a mark, the change of thickness in the line- these are all ways that the artist can turn a sketch into something very special. You're completely right- it's all a matter of practice!
Years ago I read an article on draughtsmanship that confirms this: somewhere on the other side of the Iron Curtain, drawing was taught every day, alongside the basic curriculum, and all the students could draw. Students may not have learned to use the emotional layer that makes "art", but they could all draw!
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