DRAWING lies at the very core of my art practice. I am interested in line and form. When I first discovered Matisse’s drawings I was impressed with his confident use of line. Then I looked at Japanese and Chinese ink drawings and realised where Matisse and Picasso got their inspiration.
For the last 6 decades I have strived to master my own drawing skills, searching for edges, proportions and subtle changes of form.
I have recently begun a new project and added DRAWING to my list of web pages. The plan is to document my recent experiments with drawing and to share my process.
I have also added an ILLUSTRATION page to showcase selected projects from the past .
One slight niggle is that I have too many web pages already – perhaps I should be reducing the number, not adding more but drawing is so fundamental – I can’t believe I haven’t created a page dedicated to drawing before !
I have taught DRAWING for most of my adult life and life drawing for over thirty years but I am still eager to discover new ways of expressing myself through DRAWING.
Over the last few weeks, I have been doing some drawings for a new client and to keep things fresh, I have been experimenting with different styles of drawing – questioning what is a monochrome drawing.
Whilst I believe that observational drawing is vital, both for fine artists and illustrators alike, experience and memory forms another important strand. I have spent a lifetime of looking, analysing and recording. Developing or synthesising ideas is another overlooked skill. As obvious as it might sound – thinking is a very important part of the process.
Metaphorically speaking, DRAWING THE LINE is something that one gets better at with experience – knowing where to take a line is a the ultimate skill but when to pause and reflect or when to call it a day and stop can also be useful !
The notion that if you “work back into an artwork, it will improve is not always the case. Over the years, particularly with life drawing, if you draw the same pose, several times over, it pays dividends . In essence, each time you draw the model you learn something new about the dynamics of the pose (and the materials you are working with and perhaps you even learn something about yourself) and by recognising that a drawing isn’t working, for whatever reason, is key.
Sometimes by DRAWING THE metaphorical LINE under the piece and starting again can be very rewarding practice. Incidentally, after many years of drawing , I no longer rely on using an eraser, so keep practising every day and you will become more fluent !
Sometimes, when you are in the groove, the drawing tool knows exactly where to go and things work out perfectly but the magic doesn’t always happen first time ! By the time you have done your third drawing it will be considerably better than the first ! If not, you may find that by revisiting drawing number two and adding a line here or there might be the solution !
Writing is the same, I have revised this post several times already – perhaps it’s just me . . . What do you think ?
More thoughts on DRAWING / TEACHING and THE MEANING OF LIFE to follow later, when I hope to fully explain the concept of DRAWING THE LINE.
Chris N Wood 12.09.26
Leave a comment