To draw or not to draw, and what is it all about anyway?

What is drawing? Good question.

  • recording an image.
  • using imagination to represent an image or concept.
  • providing visual information – a stamp of the self or personality.

What constitutes drawing? Another good question.

  • creating an image using a variety of different media.
  • re-creating an image.
  • creating a plan (technical drawing).
  • positive drawing (adding to a surface).
  • negative drawing (taking away from a surface).
  • Graffiti.
  • 3-D drawing.

Drawing as a verb. Drawing can be a noun or a verb. The likes of Jackson Pollock (him of the dotty splattery paintings) drew as a verb. I remember drawing as a verb as a child on car journeys – start at point A, let the pen move, finish at point B.

Different types of drawing.

  • permanent drawing – drawings for life.
  • temporary drawing – drawing in dirt, in fingers on windows, on ice; drawings created by clouds, shadows, light and dark.

When does a drawing become a sculpture?

Who is good at putting emotion into a drawing?

  • Rembrandt – he was good at it.
  • Renaissance artists – they were also pretty good at it.
  • Picasso – he was very skillful in creating impression with a few strokes.
  • Cy Twombly – his art consists of seemingly random childish marks on paper – but he creates emotion.
  • Frank Auerbach – his art shows very raw emotion. He spent hours drawing and re-drawing and re-drawing.
  • Art Brut – ‘outsider’s art’ – the idea of art created through extreme mental states.

Can drawing be holistic?

Can drawing aid thinking? Think ‘kinetic learning’, doodling, John F. Kennedy used to doodle during very, very important meetings.

What can you draw on?

  • paper
  • milk bottles
  • graph paper
  • windows
  • walls
  • glass
  • anything you like
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