I began with best intentions…
Drawings 1 and 2: View over a field of tombs, framed by trees
… but wasn’t satisfied what I produced. The task permitted only 15 minutes per drawing. I felt stressed and drew hastily from my photographs taken on a trip to the Brooklyn Cemetery. It felt like I had made no progress at all and was quite frustrated.
I thought about what I would like to do with the photo I selected:
– No time limit. I can’t draw against a watch counting!
– Try a watercolour painting: Make leaf-shaped marks with a brush and gradually build up the tonal areas
– Not use pencil. It’s a pain having to cover a large area with texture to make a dark overall tone.
But I decided to try again and complete the set of four drawings in pencil.
Drawing 3: The main entrance to the Brooklyn Cemetery, view from withing over the waterside
This drawing felt a bit like progress. I remembered what I had learnt about drawing trees, which was to sketch in the shapes of foliage. This made my mark making a bit more structured for the trees. I let myself draw for 30 minutes because after fifteen there was still too much open space. I thought it might be better for me if I allowed myself the time I needed and then with more experience, to develop shortcuts how to sketch more quickly what I see.
Drawings 4 and 5: View over trees and a pyramid, Manhattan skyline at the horizon
In the first drawing I may have learnt a lot about the photograph, but I wasn’t able to bring this into my drawing. Making this drawing felt like a waste of time, and I was confused and irritated because I did not understand what was going wrong. Looking again at the drawing later, I felt less negative, but was far away from being satisfied with it.
I tried to improve readability in a second drawing using colour. Maybe there was a problem with composition, or with the camera’s ability to capture what I was able to see in front of the real view. I found there were no broad tonal areas to distinguish – the entire picture was in the medium range. The interesting aspect was the distance incorporated – from the pyramid in the foreground, the trees in the middle ground and Manhattan skyline at great distance. I drew these elements, but the drawing didn’t capture what I found interesting about the view. The composition is somehow very cluttered, whereas I remember the real view feeling much more open. Maybe the effect is the result of using a photograph as the source for my drawing.
I thought that I might need to analyse my photographs more thoroughly before beginning to draw, to help me understand better what I should emphasize in the drawings. “Fast drawing helps you to concentrate and to see better.” This statement in the course materials doesn’t seem to apply to me.
Drawing 6: The statue
The initial drawing was made within the official time limit, but I added some time for details. The drawing worked much better than the other photographs, maybe because there was a particular point of interest, the figure in the center.
Reviewing my work for this exercise, there seems to be some kind of development in how I drew, from very expressive and uncontrolled to slower and finer. But I feel still light years away from good drawings. It feels like my mind is cluttered with instructions, and I can’t access my personal way of drawing because I’m in conflict with the guidelines about what and how I should draw. Or maybe it’s just hopeless, and drawing is just not among the things I can do well.