The Drawing of the 10,000 Things...small drawing of a crushed Coke can

Coke can sketch

class ended last week.  Our goal was simple:  to draw as many small objects as possible.  And, by doing that, to be able to transfer our lessons learned to the understanding of drawing other things....or anything at all.  The problems we faced were:

* drawing things within transparent packaging or glass, and the resultant distortions

* considering 2 point perspective and the importance of eye level

* the importance of drawing what we see versus what we "think" we see....a carryover from our   L-brained " 6-year-old way of knowing" which is often in error

* holding off on the drawing of detail in order to first consider larger forms

* how to best represent various materials and their inherent qualities:  cloth (light vs. heavy); straw, plastic, iron, glass, cotton, etc.

* gestures...even toothbrushes have them

* forms spiraling and forms symmetrical

* line versus mass

* surface variation and texture

* and ellipses, ellipses, ellipses

The small slide show features the three favorite drawings by each artist.  I think we did a wonderful job!

The Drawing of the 10,000 Things...

This summer I will be leading a drawing class that is a bit unusual - The Drawing of the 10,000 Things via Journals.  This whole notion spins off of the zen notion of drawing, drawing, drawing in order to perceive and understand the nature of things.  We will combine drawing realistically from nature; observations, writings, notations, page design, border design and hand-drawn letters.  Our goals will be:  better drawing skills (utilizing value, perspective, texture, line and variety); self-awareness; self-definition and the use of drawing and writing to interpret everyday reality.  The goals and subject matters will be individual to each artist.  We will incorporate critique and goal-setting as a means of self-improvement.  We will be using the Zen notion of drawing a great variety of everyday objects and drawing conclusions that will, hopefully, transfer to drawing anything at all.  A greater awareness.  The class begins on June 18, Mondays from 6:30-9 pm for 8 weeks...all at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.

This drawing was done some time ago at a similar class.  I discovered that rumpled and squashed things are often fragmented into triangle shapes.  Also, that the description of the key junctures of these fragments was crucial to the understanding of the drawing.

Lost in the Freedom...

Rabbit Study   pencil and conte crayon   10 x 13

These days I spend most of my time considering painting the nothingness, the space that connects the subject to the background....that for which there are no plans save intuition and freedom of the moment.  It is very rewarding and exhilarating....breaking up the spaces and letting go of the reality in the places that seem to matter least.  I am not always successful.  I am always up for the challenge.  On those days where success seems shallow and uncertain, I come back to the more honest beginnings, where describing the reality of the subject was the goal.  "Rabbit Study" is such a work, done with finely sharpened pencils.  As I recall, this drawing took over a week to complete.  It was a study in order to get to familiarize myself with the sculptured form of a rabbit, so that I could paint it more freely further on down the road.  It is good to ground myself and my work now and then.  See Rabbit Study at Discovered Artists.