Seeing Better Through Drawing

Tonight I will be teaching a very basic drawing class to a group of teens. In the process of getting ready for it I've pulled out work from my files to illustrate the points I want to make. As I've been thinking about how to format the class I've had a chance to consider the importance of drawing. 

A graphite drawing from a figure drawing class I took.  I learned so much from this piece.  

At my university I realized that a very low priority was placed on drawing skills there. The more I learned about the contemporary art scene the more aware I was that this is nearly universal. Avant guarde work is rarely representational and when it is, it's quite abstracted. The general feeling is that drawing isn't important to this genre of work. 

(Done with water-soluble graphite)  Because I'd drawn fruit (yes, fruit) quite a bit before I took a figure drawing class, drawing volume in the figure was easier to understand.  Everything we draw contributes to something we will yet draw.  

This post is not a rant against abstract or non-representational work. I believe people should work in whatever style suits them best- while allowing others the same courtesy. (Down with the art police!) However, I do believe that the act of drawing and continuing to practice drawing will make better art all around. If I make wonky paintings because I don't have the skills to work differently then I'm not acting by choice. If my work is wonky because I choose to make it wonky, I am in control of my tools and vision. Drawing well is one of those basic tools. 

Using water-soluble graphite to work out the issues of this bottle before I put it into a painting made the actual painting easier to do.  

In my style of working drawing is key to successful pieces. Whether a piece is highly finished as a stand-alone work or made to try out an idea, it contributes to my whole body of work; not nessecarily the volume of my work but to the quality of it. Really seeing glass, for example and then drawing what I've seen teaches me to think on multiple planes, the plane closest to me, the rearward plane that I can see through the glass and the sides which are less visible but still present. 

Drawing glass helped me to imply the planes in these shapes that are not visible but still part of the piece.  

Understanding multiple planes makes presenting 3-dimensional objects in a 2-dimensional format more natural to the hand. Learning to draw is learning to see. Better observation of the world around us will only add to our ability to express ourselves, no matter the style in which we choose to speak. 

This drawing was done in color with soft pastels.  Being able to layer color to create volume in a drawing is another way to learn to 'see' our world and interpret it better.

It is interesting to me that the art world at large is beginning to acknowledge this idea again through the growing interest in 'Urban Sketching.'  Blogs and websites focusing on drawing/sketching skills are far more common now than they were several years ago, due in large part to the influence of Danny Gregory.  To my mind, this can only be good news for the art world as the underdog of art- drawing- becomes more appreciated.  Go forth and draw, artists!  I'm going to.  

So glad you spent some time here today, Alice