No no no - not jogging ..... drawing. A couple of months back we had a discussion about the importance of regular drawing as an underpinning to our work. Very similar to the need for an athlete to work out regularly actually, only a lot more fun to my mind. Anyway - gauntlets were flung around merrily and I decided to try and make just a little time each day for drawing - 15 minutes ... seemed achievable to me. And it has been, by and large. I started with lots of drawings of my dog, trying to get to know him in such detail that I would be able to draw him quickly. I loved that and it is still work in progress. But I needed a change (dog is disgusted), and decided to try some landscapes. These are from photos at present. but my ultimate aim is to be able to render the essence of a landscape quickly in the open. These are quite hard - a lot of information to get down in 15 minutes, and that's still at photo stage. Prioritisation is needed and I'm starting to identify the things I need to get down: darks and light, strong shapes and outlines and the dominant lines. I hope that my skills here will improve, so that I have the ability to capture what matters when I am out and about. There are always those things that defy the camera - and landscape is often one of them, so I shall keep at it. So here are some first efforts. Not brilliant drawings, and some very dodgy perspective, but trying to hone in on what was important. Maybe when the rain stops, I'll be ready for a go in the real world! - Hilary x
You're being very productive old bean. I is well impressed innit. I'm useless at landscapes - don't seem to have found my way into them yet; I need an angle. I would like to try more of them though, but I'm still stuck on kettles and teapots at the moment!
ReplyDeleteHilary - these are brilliant. i ought to take a leaf out of your book and do 15 mins of drawing everyday, but I just don't seem to get around to it.
ReplyDeleteI loved your earlier drawings of Dixter (is that his name?) by the way!
Keep it up.
You are inspirational.
HG
Nice, Hils, particularly like the woodland.
ReplyDeleteSo Annabel - not only is you royal innit - yous hip too - big respect. I am very interested in the different ways we think (in my case - just very little I suspect) ... I would just be stunned by the beauty of something and need to record that as best I could. Tell me what sort of angle you would be looking for/need. LTWWTL - I know just what you mean about the 15 minutes thing ... even that can seem tough when you are really busy. I have settled on straight after breakfast, when I have just planned the day and before I get distracted by anything else. And the joy of 15 minutes is that you know you can't produce a masterpiece, so the pressure is off. I like the woodland too Steph - I want to do some work with trees and woods so need the practice..... there is a wood of suicides in Dantes Inferno, where the soul of those who have commited suicice are trapped in the trees for ever .... it fascinates me. I hope you will be posting some of the drawings you do with your new set of 2000 pencils? x
ReplyDeleteGosh, now that's a huge question that requires me to think, and on an empty stomach too. Can a body deal with so much effort?!! I too am stunned by the beauty of landscapes, but I like staring at them for ages and not especially drawing them. I like to draw small things and make them large (says she, thinking of a million times when the reverse has applied) I look at a landscape, and I keep drinking it in, but I keep thinking of Constable and Stubbs, (who, incidentally, I think used a sponge for his trees!!) and much as I appreciate their skill,I don't want to do that. I like photos of landscapes but not massively, and I can't help but seeing the trees and the hills as an opportunity for more (sorry, even I think that's pretentious!). So, I want to change the colours, or reduce the hills to stripes, or pleats, and exaggerate the gradiants, or have everything leaning to the left!!! Who can say??!
ReplyDeleteMind you, when I started painting and "had" to do a life class I nearly dropped dead. Why on earth would anyone want to paint someone in the nuddy?? But here I am 4 years later, making quilts with naked ladies on them. We live to prove ourselves wrong I think. And as I've only ever tried landscapes twice, perhaps I should shut up and get on with one!!
Speaking of Life Quilts, I have today found a model for the next Orientation piece called Still Life. She's a yoga and meditation guru, so just the job for conveying stillness I hope. I intend to start in the next 10 days just as soon as I've finished wallpapering and doing utterly boring Stuff.
Fascinating - so when you say an angle, I think you are looking for a focus, a purpose, a something to exagerate or emphasise? I can get that - there is always the fear of just producing something rather pretty but bland, that just does not get over the awe you feel sometimes when looking. I don't think I have any great desire to faithfully replicate a landsacpe (if I infact even could!) - I want to get across it's essence, the thing about it that made me stop in the first place ... that's why I want to be able to do quick drawings, not getting the precision of a slow obserevation, but a fast, gutteral response, so I suppose that is my 'angle'. It is wonderful to be able to pick the brains of all you more experienced artists ... gets my brain ticking. What do others think/feel/aim when they approach landscape, or other larger subject drawings?
ReplyDeleteLandscape is difficult, I find, when drawing en plein air, as t'were, because there's rather a lot of it, and it has rather a lot going on in it too. Possibly unless it's a very flat desert, but you could even get carried away with that, but not here in Birmingham.
ReplyDeleteI think it's good to make yourself get out and draw, decide what to put in and leave out, push yourself a bit, but just treat it as a learning exercise, and relax. I used to draw outside a fair amount when we went to Wales quite frequently, and would often take a glue stick and papers to rip up and stick on my sheet,to form a basis to draw over and loosen me up. It was less earnest, relaxed me, and moved things along quickly too, otherwise I was constantly questioning whether the work was good enough or not, which is inhibiting. Also it gives the work a character that will be more recognisably yours than a plainer pencil drawing, although those are completely valid and useful.
In hand with this I use photographs, to help remove detail in fact, and aid simplification, if that's what one is after, and then to resolve a design or finished piece. If I am drawing a plant which I don't want to turn into a sort of botanical illustration, I will often photograph it and draw from the image, to stop myself becoming too bogged down with every last detail. I'll shut up now.
Very interesting Steph - and I do like the idea of glueing papers down to make a different surface and remove some of the 'serious'ness. I can also imagine using that idea to get down some big shapes - hills, fields, skylines etc, to give a good starting point. Infact, I am rather liking the idea of just collaging what I see - that would really simplify it and take a way the urge to reproduce in it's entirety, and perfectly. I think I might try that for a week or two - although not outside unless the rain stops. Then I can go back with pencils etc - crikey ... I'm getting excited .... I so agree with the need to relax and get out of your own way with expectations of brilliance (are we all like this? - the dreaded perfection gene?). This I suspect is what puts so many adults off drawing - it's not the fun filled representation of our world that it was as a child, rather a fear filled test of how good we are. Lets face it, the photos get perfection, the drawing/collaging/painting is about getting the emmotion/feeling/impact/personal isn't it? I'll shut up now too, except to just agree also with the difficulty of trying to deal with the immenseness of the outdoors - I wonder if that is an HSP trait? (did you ever read that book Steph?) x
ReplyDeleteI did read it some time ago, but I am due another dip into it. I think I am now entering my 'sod it I'm going to do whatever I want phase'though, I like to cover as many bases as possible. Is there a special name for people who like cutting and sticking do you think? I even have a collection of those fancy edged scissors, they were Chloe's when she was about 9; I never use them in work, I just get them out every so often and cut a few bits of paper with them. Keeps me happy.
ReplyDeleteWhat about CSB's - cutting sticking bods ...?
ReplyDeleteI went to Compton Verney yesterday to see a new exhibition about flying. There were a couple of Da Vinci sketches on loan from er Maj and a fair few nudes (just saying!)amongst a host of items. But there was also a Matisse sketchbook opened at a page where he had used paper cutouts and glued them on to the page. When he could'nt use his paintbrush any more, this was his solution. The page was black with a roughly cut blue body and a tiny red dot for a heart, and the background was studded with wonky yellow stars. It made me think of this conversation, so I thought I'd mention it.
ReplyDeleteAnd his Blue Nude was also a cutout ..... maybe I could get in to nudes too? Apparently he used to paint his papers first, so he could get just the colour he wanted, and then use them for his cutouts - so definitley another CSB ... and if it is good enough for Matisse ......
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