Ways of Seeing

Last week I posted a video about using a tracing app to make a figure drawing, if you haven’t seen it, you can give it a watch here.

I’ve used optical aids like grids and projectors before, but I’ve never traced an image of the figure in order to “make a figure drawing” …but lately ads for these apps keep popping up on my feed, and increasingly a lot of these small scale, perfectly drawn figures are also popping up all over youtube and instagram. So I caved and decided to try it out.

As I said in my video, there are obvious benefits to using optical aids and obvious use cases for transferring a drawing or an image to the surface as an underdrawing. Obvious. There’s no doubt that much successful studio work is done with the help of photos, projectors and other means of composition and image placement. In the words of David Hockney, “The artist makes the marks, not the lens.”

But, personally, when it comes to the figure at least, I am interested in LIFE drawing. And so for me, that means finding a connection with the figure, with the model or with any subject that I am observing directly. It’s how drawing works, for me.

In our recent Book Club, we worked through “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, and I learnt so much about the activity of observing when drawing. Betty Edwards’ book is not really a book about how to draw - it is in fact a book on how to observe. And that requires re-learning, or un-learning, because it’s about ways of seeing that are radically different to “copying”: ways that activate the creative, intuitive or instinctive part of your brain, in order to make choices and decisions. It’s what Nicolaïdes would call a “natural” way of drawing. And the amazing thing is that the kind of looking that Edwards unpacks in her book actually allows for accuracy, exactness and even photo-realism. But not by symbolizing, simplifying, deconstructing or tracing - rather, by connecting. Even the process of measuring and sighting, we discovered, is part of the right-brain mode of working, because throughout the process you stay completely connected to your subject while you measure.

Using that tracing app felt so utterly disorienting simply because I was unable to really connect with what I was drawing. I get that you can get used to that - but I also get that by doing so, you risk losing a freedom to improvise.

Through observation (and right brain activity) you have the possibility to access things that normally are not accessible, which is exactly why relying on observation rather than flat out tracing allows for something new to be expressed. And if not, at least something different, something that is unique to your perspective.

If there is anyone who is local to me (Western Cape, South Africa) I am facilitating another life drawing workshop on the last weekend in August: Fri 28th to Sun 30th. If you are interested in the details please hit reply to this email and I’ll send you all the info!

I would so love you to join me 😀

This August, I'm going to run a four-week cohort, which is a live online course with group drawing sessions and feedback sessions. This is the second cohort that I’ve offered, and the last one was hugely successful, so I’m very excited to do this again.

I’ll be working out the curriculum, the times, and all the details which I will share with you in the next few weeks, but I just wanted to let you know so you can keep it in mind.

R.I.P David Hockney

“A genius in every medium; an endlessly inventive artist, with a unique vision of the world” - Alex Farquharson, Tate Britain

I have a few books in my studio about and by David Hockney, one which I referenced just last week in my YT video - “Secret Knowledge”, all about the use of optical aids throughout history, and while I never really resonated with Hockney’s paintings (I’m more of a Bacon fan 😆), I find his drawings to be very compelling.

Hockney’s “Portraits and People” is a book that contains amazing drawings of the people in his life, throughout his life. And just as in this self-portrait above, if nothing else comes through in his mark it is that direct and unshakeable connection. Take a look at his drawings this week for inspiration. ❤️

Lastly, I made it to life drawing this past weekend (🥳). It’s always inspiring to draw with other artists and to get to draw from the live model. So, am sharing some of the drawings here.

ok. That’s it for now! Thank you so much for reading! I’m wishing you a wonderful week,

Siobhan.