it passée to write about writer’s notebooks but since I’ve started to think in visual terms i understand the need for doing sketches to practice specific drawing techniques.
Trying different cross-hatch patterns to assess their usefulness for different types of shading. Drawing eye after eye to make sure that you get the shapes correct.
Probably learning to see without imposing any meaning or symbolism onto the image getting down to those quintessential drawing skills that only hit home when you know them experientially. Betty Edwards’s drawing books are a great guide to experiencing these fundamentals (more of this in another post sometime if anyone else cares). She brings the art of drawing what you see down to five skills. Five skills or rules to practice and master and you can quickly achieve a high level of competence in drawing in a few months. Taught in the traditional way in art classes , in spite of years of tuition most of use can barely move beyond that childish symbolism of our formative years.
Now I accept that I’m talking about the technical skills of drawing but we need to achieve the technical skills of writing which include grammar, spelling, figures of speech, dialogue.
It’s getting your tool box equipped and developing competence at using the tools.
Then the real task for artist and writer is to use those skills to develop works that intrigue, inspire, inform, amuse, titillate, bemuse, entertain, move to action, invoke emotions and on and on.
It’s the old chestnut of doing unimportant stuff well or doing important stuff not so well or best is to do the important stuff well. And what is important is defined by you and your reader. What have you to write and will anyone want to read it? More to come.
Trying different cross-hatch patterns to assess their usefulness for different types of shading. Drawing eye after eye to make sure that you get the shapes correct.
Probably learning to see without imposing any meaning or symbolism onto the image getting down to those quintessential drawing skills that only hit home when you know them experientially. Betty Edwards’s drawing books are a great guide to experiencing these fundamentals (more of this in another post sometime if anyone else cares). She brings the art of drawing what you see down to five skills. Five skills or rules to practice and master and you can quickly achieve a high level of competence in drawing in a few months. Taught in the traditional way in art classes , in spite of years of tuition most of use can barely move beyond that childish symbolism of our formative years.
Now I accept that I’m talking about the technical skills of drawing but we need to achieve the technical skills of writing which include grammar, spelling, figures of speech, dialogue.
It’s getting your tool box equipped and developing competence at using the tools.
Then the real task for artist and writer is to use those skills to develop works that intrigue, inspire, inform, amuse, titillate, bemuse, entertain, move to action, invoke emotions and on and on.
It’s the old chestnut of doing unimportant stuff well or doing important stuff not so well or best is to do the important stuff well. And what is important is defined by you and your reader. What have you to write and will anyone want to read it? More to come.