Motoric Drawing
AIP1, Session 4
In this session, I was asked to combine soft and firm motoric drawing skills, using charcoal or drawing pen. The first thing that strikes me about this exercise is how similar the results look like a cross-section of the brain. I suppose that's to be expected, given the reach of my hands. In this exercise I used both, with a bar of charcoal in each one.
Map of the Problematique, Muse
I started at the center as to "balance" the body first, and gradually proceeded outwards. What strikes me as most interesting is the relationship between my left and right hands---one follows the other. I experimented between concentrating on my left hand then right hand during the process, but they always more or less mirror each other.
The left one is more flexible yet flimsy, so its strokes are wider and thinner. The right hand, being the dominant one, is more rigid and stiff. Its strokes are harsher. This is particularly evident in Mombasa, the right hand always draws in sharp strokes while the left hand gives more curves to the same movement.
Mombasa, 2Cellos
During the warm up drawing I hung the paper on the wall, but then I found it more enjoyable to place it on the floor. As a result, all of these drawings are done by me lying on the floor, facedown, on a giant piece of paper probably two metres long, a bar of charcoal in each hand, moving upward, downward, and sideward.
Needless to say my mother was weirded out.
After the first trial I got the idea of using music as means to focus the energy and control my breathing. The first one, as you can see above, is derived from Muse's Map of the Problematique, a song I can only define as space-y, synth, polyphonic and a little bit emo-ish in a non-emo way. I got better in Mombasa, a song that is played entirely in electric cello, with all their sharp edges and vibrations.
The last one is Something in the Way by Nirvana, a much slower, melancholic song. At this point my right and left hands have become pretty coordinated, and I revelled in the large loops.
Something in the Way, Nirvana
I tried to feel the music I was listening to, not to reflect it but rather to be the music. It's almost as if I were swimming, in the tunes and in the drawing. "The painting has a life of its own," Pollock said, and when I was inside it I felt like it reflected my life, and I reflected its life.