Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Drawing movement

Charcoal on paper, approx 20 x 16"


Why not? No harm trying. One needs plenty of cheap paper such as newsprint, and a drawing tool such as charcoal that moves easily over the paper and leaves a good dark mark. The model performed a repetitive movement in one place, such as turning to one side and back, or sweeping (pretending to). After a while I put a sheet of tracing paper over the scribbled figure and continued to draw while the model continued to move.

It might seem daft. It’s hard to draw a thing when it’s still, let alone when it’s moving. But strangely enough, the results weren’t all that bad. Of course the drawings are only scribbles. I wasn’t looking for perfection, just an idea of what the person was doing. On the positive side, the fact that the model was moving made me freer and braver and less finicky about detail. I ended up with quite a few ideas from a series of drawings of this kind.

And it sort of broke a spell. Since this series I’ve been trying many more moving things, such as ripples on water and animals at the zoo. It doesn't matter if they turn out a mess, just one good scribble in a batch is enough to make me happy.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary,
As I mentioned before I'm really pleased seeing such a passionate approach to drawing... You are much better "student" of art that many of those around me whom I know form my college (including myself)...I drew moving figures once and it was both enjoyable and formative experience...Our teacher put about ten people on a scene and they were supposed to change/modified their positions every 15 seconds! After some time my frustration has been replaced by an enjoyment of drawing freely, intuitively and without caring of any "representative" characteristics. What came out from that exercise was actually a movement drawn - amazing try for mind-eye-hand stimulation. Keep it going!...

Mary Adam said...

Hello Katarzyna and thanks for your comment, and I'm glad you too have discovered the joys of drawing moving things. I'll post a couple more soon from a visit to the zoo. There was such a cute little young turtle who was as curious about me as I was about him/her -- I only got a scribble of the head but you can see the interest.