Drawing school update: week 2

27 Jan

Pencil and charcoal

55 x 76 cm

Last week I started on a course at The Royal Drawing School. Week two was a different sort of session from the first. Instead of just drawing from life, we started with two sources of input:  a written description of a stage set from a Harold Pinter play, and a model who would take three different poses at different times throughout the day. The aim was to create a single drawing that was a combination of memory (i.e. imagination) and observation. 

This drawing forced me to take on a number of unfamiliar issues. One in particular was the issue of coherence. Every image has some mechanism of coherence that is its primary concern; something that "holds" the image together. It can be a visceral emotion, a story, a viewpoint, a technique, etc. All too often in my drawings I try to place descriptive accuracy as the primary mechanism of coherence.

For this exercise however I tried to release my rigid grip on perspective and linear description and focus instead on trying to hold the image together by weaving the marks and tones like a tapestry. My goal was to stay loose and try to disengage my conscious, thinking, judging, "problem-solving approach to drawing, and try to make way for something more direct, immediate, automatic. I wanted to allow the image to bend to a different set of criteria, so I focused on my mark making. Every mark in a drawing has a job to do and I wanted the marks to do more than just describe an edge or contour. I wanted the marks to connect the different parts of the drawing together. I wanted them to act as structural, tonal, and narrative indicators -- at the same time if possible.

Here's the result. This feels like progress. But I know I'm still dealing with issues of technique. My aim is to get into a state where the drawing is telling me what it needs and the pencil is being guided by the emotion or the narrative in the piece, rather than me instructing things consciously.  I want to find a way to take my ego out of the equation more, feel less in control, and make drawings that surprise me even more than this one. 

 Detail

 Detail

Detail