It's two weeks since I enrolled onto this course and I feel really pleased to have made this start.
Initially, my ideas for completing this Drawing course are to learn the fundamental techniques involved in drawing and to progress to, hopefully, achieving a standard of work that I can enjoy and find pleasing. I have little experience but every text I read confirms the idea that anyone can learn to draw providing practice is maintained daily and observation is paid to the shapes of things- so this gives me confidence. Indeed, in just these two weeks I feel that I have made some learning progress.
Starting with the doodles and mark making was an eye opener. I tended to think of drawing as something done with a pencil but the multitude of marks that can be made with different materials on their own and then in combination makes me think you could do this exercise forever. It was also interesting how different media so obviously lend themselves to different effects and atmospheres. I'm thinking of how fine pen is very even, how graphite can be smudged, how charcoal can lend itself to soft edges and how lovely it looks mixed with other media. Overall, I realise that I need to guard against picking up a 2B pencil and not trying out other materials. Each drawing needs to be considered and questions asked about the suitability of the drawing materials and also the paper; smooth or rough, white or coloured not forgetting the size and format.
Finally, a note about sketchbooks for this start of the course. I find them really scary at the moment. For someone who is learning, the quick sketches look like -? Although I can see as well that my scribble sometimes has an energy of line missing from drawings considered for longer.
Whilst on the subject of line I took a quick look at Paul Klee's texts regarding line. Certainly beyond my understanding but contains some illustrations of Klee's beautiful works; I love that sentence about taking the line for a walk and for the first time have some appreciation of a print that was always on my wall of a fishing scene.
You seem to have some success in photographing your work: I always seem to struggle with this, whether I use a scanner, an SLR, or a compact.
ReplyDeleteNice site - is the background your own photo, or a stock one? I like it, anyway.