Layers of Meaning

Draw! an online workshop

Access Art in the U.K. has produced a series of online art workshops for teachers and learners. Right now I am working my way through the Draw! unit. The first part asks the learner to think about what drawing is (and isn't). "What is a drawing? At its most basic, a drawing is nothing more than a series of marks made on a surface by one human being, which another human being can understand.... Believing what you see. Drawing is about forgetting what you think you know, and believing what you see. Never assume you know what the thing you are going to draw looks like. Take your time before you begin to draw, and make sure you are really looking - try seeing the object as if for the first time."

Then the tutorial moves on to some intriguing exercises for the practice of drawing: "To get round the worry of the white page, give yourself something else to think about. Set some restrictions on your drawing. Make a number of drawings of the same object using different restrictions, i.e. "I'll only make calm marks" "I'll only use angry marks", "I'll only use four lines". Work with extremes!" I like the idea of just making marks that express my mood. I spend far too much time worrying about depicting visual reality - time for some emotion!