Pen, Paper, and a Vision

The Art of Drawing

2010-01-30T14:07:00.001-08:00

"The eyes see, the heart feels , the hand draws."

Drawing Zen

2010-01-03T16:07:00.001-08:00

Drawing is more than a means to an end for me. It also leads me to an internal gateway connecting to other facets of my psyche. I try to practice drawing for at least thirty minutes a day, sometimes more. I use the practice as a precursor to my paintings, but surrender to the painting process once the tipping point has been met. There is a large, sometimes undefined difference between the processes of drawing and painting. Both draw from the same creative well, but each rely on different characteristics and techniques to achieve a finished end.

I enjoy drawing the human figure, and it's relationship to it's immediate surroundings. I'll fill a blank page with many drawings turning the paper in all directions to fill it completely. I try to extract the essence of what I am looking at, simplifying the design as much as possible. I also do this as quickly as I possibly can. By drawing quickly, I am assuring simplification of my drawing. This has become ingrained into my creative drawing process over the years.

I draw, when possible, from live figures. But as I've gotten older, I enjoy drawing more from my ever expanding clip files. I collect all kinds of interesting images and cull them from everywhere and everything. These clip file images that I keep hold a dual purpose, also feeding the content of my paintings.

The practice of drawing also acts as a barometer for how I am feeling, emotionally and otherwise. If I am tense and/or stressed I can see it immediately. I can then observe, and feel myself becoming more centered as I continue to draw allowing the practiced creative process to take over. It's as natural as breathing, another good practice.

I draw with an ink pen, except when laying out a painting. I started using a pen instead of a pencil years ago because it helped with confidence and left the mistakes for me to look at and learn from.

My one favorite meaning that defines the word drawing is that of pulling one thing out of another. It's all in the head.

A Good Foundation

2009-12-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

My earliest recollection of drawing, or making any kind of art was met with a scolding from authority figures. When I was in the sixth grade, a classmate was schooling me in the fine art of crafting super heroes on paper with pencil. We could make these characters do anything we wanted them to do, on paper, except rescue us from our strict teacher. We were separated immediately. The teacher had no time for this kind of foolishness.

Another wonderful memory from around the same time period, was when my sister and I were drawing the same thing at the same time. When done, we both showed them to our mother for approval. My Mom looked at them both then proceeded to scold me for trying to "show up" my sister. My sister was older. I can remember that we both were baffled at her response. I was obviously crushed. An interesting childhood development technique.

Creation Creating

2009-12-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

We start drawing early on in our lives. It's probably the second creative act that we experiment with. The first being, making sounds. It's all about communicating with ourselves, and the outside world. I was a normal baby and followed this creative path just like my peers. The first thing that I learned was not, no, never put the writing tool that I was using into my mouth. Because my long term memory wasn't totally formed at that point, because I wasn't old enough to have anything long-term, I put my personal drawing instrument into my mouth numerous times until I was old enough to develop said long-term memory and learn from my prior misadventures. I also learned not to put my fellow creative peers' personal drawing impliments into my mouth. That did not take quite as long to figure out. I do still shoulder some guilt in not warning others of my early discoveries, but nobody likes a know it all. Even babies.

2009-12-13T05:28:00.000-08:00

2009-12-12T13:42:00.001-08:00