The Magical Key to Improving Your Drawing...
"Most of what surrounds us is at best distraction; at worst, harmful. When your basic perceptions change and grow, your work can’t help but do the same."
(Above, drawing, circa. 1987)
Making art is so often about learning the hard way. “I just need some time and space and I know I’ll make some magnificent work!” we cry, but instead we end up in a vacuum that impedes our growth. I did this in the early days of my art career. I was pretty dark and sullen. I’d go off to be alone, isolating myself for days on end. Sometimes it proved temporarily useful, but the bodies of great work I envisioned always fizzled and in large measure it hurt me as an artist.
Yes, artists need solitary time to focus and be productive; however, the need to produce and move forward or simply immerse oneself in making art can be so strong that it ends up backfiring. The paradox is that often what is needed is not a turning inward, but a looking outward; not an an emotional immersion, but a stepping back, self-reflection and outside input.
I would probably never include this in classroom discussion, for fear of sounding like some kind of 60’s-era hold-over, but I believe a big part of what hangs us up trying to create great work is that there are too many things binding our thoughts and perceptions. Lest this become a left-wing screed against everything that’s wrong with capitalist society, the main point is: free yourself and set your own values and goals. Most of what surrounds us is at best distraction; at worst, harmful. When your basic perceptions change and grow, your work can’t help but do the same. Sometimes it’s as simple as shifting how we approach learning.
If you have created inside a classroom setting, say a life-drawing class, I know you’ve seen this: a person who faithfully attends week after week but never improves. In fact, they make the same novice mistakes over and over and appear to take no steps to get past the problem. I’m guessing they are at real risk of becoming seriously discouraged, even quitting, because they falsely believe if they just practice regularly, they’ll get better, yet, nothing changes.
I think chances are good, such a person never got any good instruction in the mechanics of drawing, or if they did, never fully digested it. It’s as if they are trying to write poetry but don’t yet fully grasp the basics of language. Their work repeatedly is full of the same holes that never get repaired. Here too is paradox: if you’re lacking technically, your work suffers because it limits your range of expression and may take the viewer out of the experience of the work. On the flip side, too much technical emphasis and things becomes dry and academic.
I’m thinking about all the terrible technical flops I’ve created in drawing. Usually the thinking was “I’ll just grind along and I’ll make it work,” or “I’ll fix/learn that later;” when later is always way too late, or never. I’ll still make flops, but these days, I make a concerted effort to make learning an integral part of my practice, incorporating it into the projects I do. That is, going into things knowing full well there are things I don’t have mastery over and that I will work through them; even taking side roads as the work progresses. (Such as the details of human anatomy.)The work is no longer so much product-centered as built, in part, around a learning process for which I allow extra time. This makes sense to me because teaching has become a large component of what I do. If I can figure things out and work through the leaning process, I’m poised to help someone else learn it too.
One thing I do tell my portrait drawing students is there is a “golden key” for gaining proficiency and creative freedom: #1. Learn it; either through a video, a book or live instruction. #2. Draw it. Put what you know into practice. #3. Test yourself. I find drawing from memory is a great way to find out what I don’t know or understand. Repeat step #3 often, such as in your sketchbook, and refine your drawing each time by adding new elements. This keeps it challenging and adds range to what you can do. Go back to step #2 is you need to. Keep references handy in your studio. If you do this regularly, you almost can’t help improving, because muscle memory develops. You start to almost instinctively feel form, anatomy, space, line and light/dark. This frees you up to experiment, which ultimately leads to creating something new and unexpected.