Progress Report
Dec. 27th, 2023 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo I can write up to a standard that satisfies me and I can take photographs ditto but I can only draw a bit- which is the same as drawing badly. The first page of my new sketchbook makes me want to spew. It's self-conscious, halting, amateurish. I'm trying to draw "well" and I don't have the ability. "So," I thought, "I can't go on like this, hating my doodles and hating myself, let's try another tack....
One way would be to take a course and learn to draw like Raphael- only I don't want to draw like Raphael- and besides I'm doing this for fun; I don't want to have to work at it.
Or I could stop trying to draw "properly"- and try drawing like a child."
So I had a go at that, but the effort was still visible, also the falling short- and I still wanted to spew- so I went one step further...
And tried drawing blind, on the principle of pinning the tail on the donkey, not looking at the scribble until it was finished and....
Well, I don't expect anyone else to like them but I'm pleased with my scratchy little scrawls. I'm not aiming at a certain result so I can't be disappointed. Instead I'm surprised every time. Who knew it would come out like that? Also there's a dynamism I never came close to achieving when I was trying to draw well....
So I take a subject, I look away from the paper, maybe watch something on YouTube, and start pegging away...
I'm enjoying myself and it's keeping me off the phone
Here's Jean-Leon Gerome's picture of Napoleon and the Sphinx
And here's mine:
One way would be to take a course and learn to draw like Raphael- only I don't want to draw like Raphael- and besides I'm doing this for fun; I don't want to have to work at it.
Or I could stop trying to draw "properly"- and try drawing like a child."
So I had a go at that, but the effort was still visible, also the falling short- and I still wanted to spew- so I went one step further...
And tried drawing blind, on the principle of pinning the tail on the donkey, not looking at the scribble until it was finished and....
Well, I don't expect anyone else to like them but I'm pleased with my scratchy little scrawls. I'm not aiming at a certain result so I can't be disappointed. Instead I'm surprised every time. Who knew it would come out like that? Also there's a dynamism I never came close to achieving when I was trying to draw well....
So I take a subject, I look away from the paper, maybe watch something on YouTube, and start pegging away...
I'm enjoying myself and it's keeping me off the phone
Here's Jean-Leon Gerome's picture of Napoleon and the Sphinx
And here's mine:
