Grab a stick, rag or a chunk of burnt wood

If you want to make a mark, your mark you need to loosen up. What I mean is this, tradition (what you have always done) is holding you back.

Have you ever tried to draw something with charcoal? If not you may want to give it a try. I know it gets a little messy but you will find that the awkwardness of it all actually makes you draw differently.

Now by differently I don't mean bad different but good. You see when you are not used to the medium in which you may find yourself drawing you will no doubt have to change the way you go about your drawing.

One time whilst on holidays at a nice mountain retreat we were holed up in this neat cabin with this open fire and I happened to have a sketch book with me. Ceasing the moment as I noticed a piece of now cooled charcoal on the floor beside the fire, I picked it up and began to sketch my son Keenan sitting on the lounge watching TV. When I find this drawing I will add it to this post.

More recently I was teaching a friend to draw faces better and instead of using a paint brush, I got him to pick up a rag instead. The experience was very liberating and you can see his results below by clicking
on this link.

Until next the inspiring moment arouses a few words, caio!

Turn A Blind Eye To Art

Well, after my last post on the "blind contour" exercise, I decided to Google "blind artist" and what do you know, up comes a website about someone who was just that, a blind artist.

Now as amazing as that seems, that a person could or would attempt to draw or paint as a blind person the story gets even more interesting when you find out that this artist didn't learn to draw or learn to paint until after she
lost her sight.

Lisa Fittipaldi learned to draw and paint only after she had sadly lost her vision or should I say sight. You see Lisa is one of a rare breed who definitely have vision even thought her ability to see with her eyes is now gone. So it would be unfair to say that she has no vision, for surely it takes incredible
courage and vision to try to do something as challenging as learning to draw without eyesight.

If you read about her story on he website at, www.lisafittipaldi.com/Artinterviews.htm you will see that further to my idea that anyone can learn to draw is not really all that far fetched.

I did meet another person the other day who assured me that he could NOT be taught to draw. After reading about Lisa and her amazing accomplishment (I still don't understand how she does it) I would have to fall back on my firm belief that if anyone is willing no matter what the circumstances, they can learn to draw too.

More next time.

Take Time To See Before You Draw

The most common mistake that people make when they begin drawing is that they spend too little time studying what they are attempting to draw.

This is true whether you are painting, sketching or drawing with a pencil.

So a quick and easy tip is this, "look more than you draw" for improved results. One thing you could try is the "blind contour" exercise. If you don't know what I am talking about here, just grab a pencil, a piece of paper and then find an object to draw.

The thing is, don't look at your drawing until you are finished. Instead just look at the object and draw blind. You will be surprised with the results. Don't expect it to look like a completed picture but do expect to find some interesting shapes that your eye followed completely.

Give it a try and see how you go, I am sure you will be surprised.

Send me a comment if this has been helpful or at least some fun.

Cheers,

Greg.