Art Journal

[dragonofdispair]

Focus Question: What is drawing? Why is it useful to learn to draw? If everyone draws the same object "realistically", why are the drawings different?

drawing... using an implement to make a mark on a flat surface? 'cause a kid making scribbles with a crayon is drawing. sometimes it's better drawing than what most adults can or will do. cave drawings are drawings. usually we like to think of drawing as representational of some sort though -- drawing some thing as opposed to putting random colors on a page. not that that isn't useful...

why's it useful... i'm going to assume that for "useful" we're talking about making a relatively accurate sketch of something -- real or imaginary. useful applications of drawing: designing things, such as the interior of a home -- deciding where to put the couch and things -- sketching things out for memory, designing things again -- like laying out the design of a stained glass window (which is fun, btw. i've done it.) -- making a design to be transfered to something else, allowing a more accurate image of an imagined character.

now we're talking about drawing objects... why do objects drawn by different artists look different? i can think of several reasons off the top of my head...

1) everyone sees an object differently. i don't just mean emotionally and mentally -- though i do mean those -- but physically. everyone is a different size, they're eyes are different widths apart, and have different degrees of near-sighted or far-sightedness that are differently corrected for.

2) everyone expresses their views of an object differently. couple classes ago, the entire class had to draw a tricycle. a broken tricycle, at that. and at the critique, i couldn't help but be just a little envious of the people who expressed their lines lightly, barely there, or gracefully. my lines are nearly always heavy, dark, and entirely *there*. sometimes it interferes with the picture, sometimes it enhances it, but either way the lines are dark and heavy, rather than light. i also have a tendency to think of the positive space as darker and more solid than the negative. durning the tricycle exercise, this meant that the first thing i'd done, was make a dark, solid, tricycle frame, where others had outlined the tricycle and darkened the negative space.

i'm sure there are others reasons...