THE DRAWING EXPERIENCE

So I bought another drawing book with the aim of drawing more often during weekdays - at least one proper drawing per day… The process neatly defined to me from all the sources possible:-

• From real life – live drawing
• From photos
• From memory
• Mind drawings – that is pure abstracts
• Converting any of the above or previous drawings – I call it an abstraction!

One can easily do series or drive a concept or topic to the limits! My suggestion? Draw it firstly on a separate paper, maybe even more than once playing with the drawing types as well as the concepts of composition and tonal value and how to express the tonal value with shades and fading or crosshatching etc. UNTIL you have something! Play...
Something can then be transferred to my drawing book- I do it again but now carefully working it up or carelessly working it up to get the effect that I was getting on the final drawing - or an improvement on it. Obviously even now small calculated changes are incorporated but the overall drawing stays more or less the same.
This process can easily be extrapolated into a drawing tour where anything from two to five drawings per day can be done BUT NOW everything is done in a drawing book with full notes to myself or whoever - explain what I am doing adding extra notes on whichever number of the same drawing the first last or everyone – these notes freely added to express my mood, the mood or temperature of the drawing, the time of day and very important in at least one of the drawings the actual colours and maybe make notes to the colours that you would like to do and the reasons why you would choose these colours for the possible painting that could follow . Maybe a good idea is also to write freely where the place is where the drawing was done? Yes you can add a very simple watercolour sketch to it if you want to.
AND YES of course you are right! Take a photo or two but don’t neglect the drawing – it is better not to take the photo that not to draw – get that! Get that! Because you can always replace the photo with a simple watercolour done in speed, yes, in speed because now this is not the final product because at home in the studio you would like to complete the final product – the painting! Or play again with the drawing types stated above and do a final great and bigger drawing.
Ah do those drawings! Just draw! Draw…