Having a shoulder injury is never a helluva lot of fun. However, it's a real stinker when it prevents me from painting. Sigh. Still, an artist must keep muddling on. And one way to keep sane during the healing process is to practice my drawing skills. Because drawing doesn't require raising my arm. If I work small.
Magenta Tulip by Ernest W. Watson, Pencil Drawing
Crisis = Danger + Opportunity
The authenticity of this old Chinese saying seems to be in question. But authentic or not, it sounds smart and I'm sticking with it. So I picked up one of those wonderful old-fashioned Watson-Guptill art instruction books. The Art of Pencil Drawing by Ernest W. Watson himself. The book features his gorgeous "painterly" pencil drawings, and he generously explains his materials and methods for making them that way. That alone would be precious information. But there's more to Watson than just a simple "how to". He also explains why making a sketch or drawing transcends merely recording what you see.
Creative Seeing
Watson quotes a thought-provoking passage by the celebrated writer William Saroyan: "There is such a thing as creative seeing. What constitutes such looking? Clarity, intelligence, imagination and love. You make a point of looking at the object. You look steadily and clearly. You see the object, you see it again. You notice the true nature of it in its entirety and in its parts. You relate its reality to all reality, to all time and space and action. You admire its survival and you love its commonness and its individuality." Heady stuff, right?
And here Watson gets more personal, relating his own experience: "In a moment of relaxation, my gaze fell upon some magenta tulips. I had never before seen a tulip. Oh, I had looked at tulips in a long succession of springtimes and had gloried in their beauty ... Yes, I had looked at innumerable tulips in a detached and agreeable kind of way for as long as I could remember; yet, until this occasion, I had never really seen one."
And here Watson gets more personal, relating his own experience: "In a moment of relaxation, my gaze fell upon some magenta tulips. I had never before seen a tulip. Oh, I had looked at tulips in a long succession of springtimes and had gloried in their beauty ... Yes, I had looked at innumerable tulips in a detached and agreeable kind of way for as long as I could remember; yet, until this occasion, I had never really seen one."
Still Life with Tulips by Johannes Bosschaert
Then he goes on to say how drawing completes the act of seeing. "Thus, through collaboration of eye, brain, and muscle, we go beyond knowing about to the intimate experience of knowing ... There is a deeply sensed intimacy between artist and object when both are parts of the same scene, both immersed in the same atmosphere ... Is that not why a sketch--our sketch, however slight and lacking in detail--has infinitely more meaning to us than a fine photograph of the same subject, or a painting of it by another artist?"
Art is Meditation
So there you have it, friends. The metaphysics of art. The experience of becoming one with reality through knowing things intimately. And how do you get so chummy with these things? Well, by drawing them, of course! Just be sure to add clarity, intelligence, imagination and love.
Okay then. Are you motivated yet? Time to get out those pencils and paper!
Okay then. Are you motivated yet? Time to get out those pencils and paper!
