Drawing From Real-Life Observation and Studies
The first thing we had to do for Intro to Drawing class was take off our shoes and draw them. The others used pencils, but I opted for a black marker because, well, I like it black, like mah fucking soul.
But this is drawing, not copying, so next we were asked to draw the shoe with our left hand... with one endless line... and no looking at the paper while we're at it.
I switched up the angle for each sketch, but I noticed that the more I tried to draw my shoe, the worse it looked. I think part of it has to do with unpredictability---the first time round, you're completely opening up your spatial perception because even though you know it's a shoe, you don't know how to draw this particular shoe. You become more observant. The second time, your hand and eye tells you that it's a shoe and you've drawn it before, and that's what ruins it.
Next, we went to GBK (Gelora Bung Karno) to do some real-life observation sketches. Though I can count on one hand the number of times I've been sketch hunting, I think it's one of my favourite ways to draw. There's an immediacy to drawing on the spot, a sort of careless mortality that combines your spatial perception with your idealistic perception. Personally, I don't like drawing from photographs or other people's sketches much. Clara Lieu wrote a really good article about it here, and I agree wholeheartedly. There's something irreplacable about drawing from the spot, or drawing from the mind's eye.
Here are some of my sketches:
I must say, those nude drawing classes I'm taking every Saturday (when I can) really paid off. As Pak Teguh always says, let the eye draw, not the hand. Our fingers, our wrists, our shoulders, they're just mediums, no different from the marker or charcoal or pencil in our hand. It's the eye that draws, the eye that controls whatever we put on paper. Consequently, he's always telling me to look before I put anything on the paper. These sketches are far from my best, of course, but I really enjoyed observing and making them, which is a far cry from what I would've said a year ago.
Of course, we can't always draw from direct observation. Maybe it's raining outside, or maybe there's just no way you can haul a six-foot canvas out into a baseball field. That's where the sketches come in. The next step is how to draw from studies, which in our case mainly consists of sketches.
We photocopied and compiled all of our sketches together, creating one huge scene.
Next, we divided this scene into three sections, each to be recreated by a different group. My group consists of four people, and we got to do the two people sketch (mine), the gates, some trees, and the pussycat (which we named Johnny).
We also took some references from books, mainly on the different styles of drawing trees and people:
Then we proceeded into the actual drawing!
We taped about 5 sheets of A1 paper together. Folded some, cut some, make sections.
No idea when I took this but it's hilarious.
The wall is looking a little lonely...
That's better. We photocopied and hung our references all over the place. That way, we can pull inspirations from any of them at any given time. I think this is a great idea and I'll be sure to use this the next time I work on a large drawing.
I mostly did the one on the left, while Madeline and Faza did the rest. We wanted to create a sharp contrast between the darks and lights, so we covered the back with charcoal (the jumbo sizes are our saviours) and erased parts that we wanted to "pop".
That's our lecturer/professor/whatever you want to call him. He was teaching us how to add details on the tree, though he ended up doing the tree himself while we watched in the background. The drawing is far from finished, we still have a treetop and Johnny the pusscat to go, but hopefully everything will be done next week. Also, we're to bring more references and one illustrator/artist that we admire to the next class. This is so we can have one focal point as to what style we'd like to do on this project.
Overall, I'm really enjoying Intro to Drawing so fun. I'm hoping for more live drawing and sketch hunting sessions! However, I also don't mind working in the studio because it allows you to take a deep breath and take in the big picture. I hope I'll enjoy it for the rest of the term. But for now... may the Flying Spaghetti Monster be with you.