thinking about drawing

For me, drawing is a kind of meditation, and every new drawing is a journey of discovery. This week at the life drawing session I found myself thinking about the sensuality of making marks on textured paper, and the joy of making varied marks in response to what you see, trying to capture movement and gesture.

Drawing on brown or coloured paper means you can show the lights and the darks of the subject.

























Sometimes its good to isolate part of a drawing, or turn it upside down. These marks could be a landscape, or something completely abstract,






























or part of this lady's ear.































Three minutes of mark-making:



























Make this quick drawing of a wonderful dynamic model.

I know its just my preference, but I think one thing that stifles creativity is the dead hand of a neat box of pencils (or any other medium), all arranged in colour order, so you are scared to actually disturb them. Here are my favourite pastels/conte crayons:

























The best thing about them is the element of surprise, not knowing until you make a mark if its going to be grey or bright blue or purple, and then letting the rest of the drawing take off from there.

I'm looking forward to making some 'surprising lines' at the next art day at the Birtley estate, drawing and monoprinting in the woods.