Things [ Hand Made ]

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My chance to wonder about hand made things and tell the world about those I make, love and cherish!

Monday 11 June 2012

being able to draw......


I am easily seduced by the beauty of a new sketchbook
I would love to be able to draw.
 I can doodle quite well but I would really like to be able to draw. 
Draw the thing I see before me and be pleased with the drawing. 
I have a pile of bulging notebooks full of ideas, clippings, doodles, comments.....
I carry my sketch book everywhere with me, just in case....
just in case I have the confidence to stop and draw something...
I often stop and I often doodle but I can never quite call it drawing.
I am not going to show you any picture of my drawing as I know that other peoples thoughts on my drawing are not what I need. 






 I will have great ideas to draw something each day but I become frozen with fear. I look around the house and do not feel motivated to draw anything I see. I end up with a bit of a doodle.....and it looks like a cartoon of the thing I draw.
I know I am not alone in my fear and desire to draw.


 I have worked hard over the years to improve my drawing. It started by teaching children to draw.
They always think your drawing is good. 
I spend a long time looking at things, deciding the essential lines, hoping that it will improve my drawing.
 I rarely feel the confidence to draw from life. I usually work from pictures
While in Venice I sketched a few things but never felt quite at ease. Since we came back I have been looking at the photos and postcards that we picked up and I have been trying to draw them, expand on the sketches and copy the pictures.
Its helping me to create the Venice sketchbook I want.
 I have found that I prefer to draw in pen. A pencil makes me dither, it makes me unsure of the line and I will rub it out.
I have 2 Rotring pens. They are fine and easy to draw with though a little temperamental.
I also use a water soluble pen and a water brush.
Shading made easy.
 I feel I need to learn. To be able to draw is part of what I feel I need to do.

no, its doesn't make much sense to me either.
 Last Sunday we went to Bristol. Had a fab day seeing the SS Great Britain and went to the City museum for the 5 year old to admire the dinosaurs.
I went in to see this exhibition.
This is what I call drawing.
Maybe, just maybe if I study and copy I could almost be learning from the best.

Anybody done this course at the Tate?
I am sure that if I just do that course and buy another sketchbook it would all start to make sense........


6 comments:

dottycookie said...

I can't draw at all. I have tried and tried. I know that "everyone can draw", it's just that I think it would take longer for me to learn than the time I have available! I admire you for keeping on trying!

red2white said...

:) I know the feeling. And yes, you are not alone in this desire at all. And so true, kids always think your drawing is better than theirs, I did too when I was small. And they say that ability to draw is a perfect basis for other art and craft skills. Go for it, it makes sense, you can do it - so they say 'everybody can learn to draw'. Good Luck!

Anonymous said...

I'd love to do do the Tate course, my drawing is very rusty. You are doing the best thing though drawing in pen, one thing I do remember from art college. Keep on going, don't be affraid!

Iz said...

I concur - drawing in pen is the way to go, and I love drawing with those very fine rotring pens, they seem to make "even doodles" look great (what's wrong with doodles?!)

angharad handmade said...

The Tate course looks like fun, I say go for it! It might just be the thing you need to forget about confidence and draw. (from one who really cannot draw at all!).

The Muse of The Day said...

Good morning Jo, or rather good afternoon in your neck of the woods. I just had my morning coffee and saw your comment on my blog. As I had a few minutes of peace (kids are enjoying the last few days of sleeping in late before school begins on Monday) I took a few moments to check out your blog. I had to leave you a comment on this post as I immediately connected with it and could not let it pass without my adding a thought to it. I, too, tend to take my sketchbook around with me and find that at the end of the day, the only thing I did with it was use it as extra filling for my all ready too full purse. It is frustrating. I, too, want to draw well. I see inspiration, but the level of dissapointing frustration upon finishing a drawing is something that I carry with me to the next drawing "event". This raw feeling of ineptitude wins over my feelings of curiosity and my sketchbook pages have a difficult time seeing the light of day. What to do? In a last ditch effort to not give up, I am trying one last thing. I am sharing it with you here in hopes that you, too, might find it of some use to get you "over the hump." for the next two months I am going to watercolor paint using the tools offered in the book Powerful Watercolor Landscapes, 37 Tools For Painting With Impact. I have been studying this book for the past week or so, impatiently waiting for my girls to begin school so that I can dedicate myself to this book and my other art projects. If you take a peek at this book, you may find, like I did, that it is the EXACT answer our "problem". By focusing on specific goals ( placement of interest, contrast, the "what" and "why" we are painting), one can begin to actually critique the direction and goal achievement of the painting rather than the quality of the overall painting, i.e. "is it good enough", or how does it compare with what I had hoped to have after all this effort". It is hard to explain in just a few words, but if you go find the book and read through the first few chapters, I think you will understand what I am saying. By following these steps, and painting natural, organic, things like trees, rivers, etc., our inept drawing abilities will not be so obvious that it keeps us from trying again. I have my fingers crossed that it will keep me going long enough that I can catch a wind to take me into the next level of dedication to learning how to draw. I have been on vacations like yours, to Venice, and my sketchbook has gone along for the ride and returned only with a smattering of wimpy drawings. It kills me to see some of the sketchbook blogs whereby their travel sketchbooks are jam packed with beautiful scenes of their travels. The measuring stick I must use, I keep reminding myself, has to be my own, created by me. I must not look at my work and judge it against others I have seen, but rather against my last work. The most difficult piece to deal with is the last one I completed - for it is my jumping off point for the next painting. very scary. Very scary indeed because I am really paralyzed at the thought of jumping off and having a miserable repeat performance. I am going to trust this book that I am talking about - I don't have many other good options, I can't just continue as I have been doing, or give up the fight entirely. Let me know if you find the book, and also let me know if you feel encouraged enough to have a go at it. I will be working on my ineptitude on this side of the pond. I think I have written enough, here, for a post of it's own. I just felt strongly about sharing with you that I am in the same shoes as you. Frustrated, disappointed, and yet oh so wanting to be able to do what eludes me - capturing on paper what catches my eye during the day. Hope you had a good day. Oh ... And by the way, high five yourselves ... we, in the states, were over-top-impressed with how awesome the Olympics turned out. You guys outdid yourselves.
Carolina