Seeing 101

The full presentation

Through last week’s assignment, I came to understand the importance of truly seeing an object as it is, instead of seeing an object in my mind’s eye. I never realized how much I rely on my brain’s automatic assumptions about an object when drawing. In learning to draw, I realized that instead of “Drawing 101,” more fundamentally, the process is actually “Seeing 101.”

With the upside down drawing exercise, watching the modules helped tremendously in getting an idea about how to tackle the drawing. I ended up going with the strategy of chunking the picture in rows. Although it felt less intimidating that way, I did notice that my brain still defaulted to making sense of it. I started with drawing the head, so my brain automatically thought, “Here are the eyes, the nose, etc.” But, thinking about the drawing in this way, even with the chunking, still made it intimidating. It wasn’t until I looked at each part of the drawing as individual shapes and lines, and assessing where they fit/how it looked in relation to the parts around it, that I was able to feel comfortable with the drawing. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome; I never would have thought that I would be able to draw the picture as well if anyone would have asked me to do it a week ago.

           Upside down drawing: the finished product, 12 x 9           

   Upside down drawing: the process, 12 x 9       

I had a completely different perspective with the faces and vases exercise. It actually helped me to verbalize each slope as a different part of the face. Although drawing the slopes to my liking took a bit of trial-and-error on the first side I drew, the left side, it was fairly easy for me to draw the opposite side because I repeated, “forehead, eyes, nose, lips, chin,” as I moved down, staying in the verbal part of my brain the entire time. I didn’t even look at the picture spatially until it was finished. I wonder what would’ve happened if I allowed myself to make that switch to a spatial perception when I drew the second side of the vase. Also, as a last note, I used guide lines at the eyes, nose, mouth and chin to help keep the vase symmetrical.

Faces and vases with guide lines

For my still life drawings, I knew I wanted something with an interesting shape to challenge myself, but not something so challenging that I would end up frustrated by the process. Nothing in my studio stood out to me (or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to shop), but I settled on a little toy watering can that I found at Flying Tiger. I felt like it provided me with interesting lines to work with, and I could also move it around to show different angles of it (though this didn’t end up in my presentation). I also picked up some pastels, watercolor paper and wholly graphite pencils for more materials to experiment with. Because I’ve never taken an art class, this has been the first time I’ve really engaged with these materials.

Graphite on mixed media paper, 9.5 x 7

Pastel on mixed media paper, 9.5 x 7

My process of trying different methods of drawing started from following the rules of the assignment and the tips from the modules, to experimenting with my own methods. I used mixed media paper to draw an exact replica of the watering can in pencil. I used the same paper to draw with pastels and found myself much more comfortable experimenting with shadows, given the “messy” nature of this material. Then, I tried the negative space approach on watercolor paper, which I ended up enjoying a lot. I liked the juxtaposition of erasing as a means of creating. It was also interesting to see how much the texture of the paper showed through; I thought the graphite would have blended in much more. 

Graphite on watercolor paper, 9.5 x 7

I also tried the fast approach, using sharpies and a brown paper bag from Market Basket. I chose the paper bag because to me, fast can sometimes lend itself to throw-away culture. For example, fast fashion causes a lot of waste, and fast food causes us to “throw away” our concerns for healthy eating. So, it made sense to pair drawing fast with a bag that represented a throw-away. Lastly, I wanted to push myself to think of another method, which is how I landed on the idea of drawing my object while simultaneously holding three different colored pencils. Making sure all of the pencils were marking the surface of the paper ended being a bit of a challenge. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought the effect it created was pretty cool: an object buzzing, as if I could see its molecules reverberating.

Sharpie on paper bag, 12 x 8

Colored pencil on bristol paper, 12 x 9

After repeatedly drawing my object, I started to see it for each of its separate parts, as opposed to a whole object. My watering can had very geometric shapes that were easy to draw individually and in relation to one another. As I reflect on my drawing process, I realize I drew my object the same way each time, starting from the bottom and moving to the top. I wonder what my experience would have been if I started each drawing from a different part of my object.