Please note this is just my personal site, so may be of no interest to anyone else, I'm just putting my thoughts down, so please feel free to completely ignore the following!



Part of my quest in retirement is to see if I can rekindle my long-neglected art work interest, perhaps the following will give you an introduction of where I am...

Years ago, I used to do a little drawing, and made some attempts at watercolour painting - nothing much good, but just the beginnings. However, that was when I was in my thirties, so four decades ago now!

If I had continued, perhaps I might have reached a reasonable level of ability by now, but with being self employed, starting and helping to run the cat sanctuary and renovating a near derelict cottage, somehow the art work got left behind.

It is too late now to spend the years required to gain the abilities I would feel happy with, so I need to work around that restriction.

I read a book a while ago about how anyone can learn to draw. It talked about the two sides of the brain doing different tasks - one for the logical, analytical aspects, the other for the creative, intuitive aspects. It then went on to describe how, if you see things as more abstract, it is easier to copy them onto paper - ie drawing - and gave an example of turning a picture upside down so we don't see it as the thing that it is, but just abstract lines and shapes, and reproducing those onto a piece of paper.

This seemed fine, but to me it seemed to be using the analytical part of the brain - judging the angle and length of lines, and looking for shapes and proportions, to be able to reproduce them on paper.

I have no doubt that this technique enables us to draw the subject we are looking at onto the paper, which is, I suppose, what drawing is - or is it?

I feel that copying what we see onto paper is just one type of drawing - a type that I personally am not sure is what I want to do.

I feel that looking at a subject and being able to draw that onto paper is very skilful if done well, but is not the creative activity I am looking for. It is very obvious whether it is done well, or not so well, and without the necessary skill, it is going to be clear that my efforts would not be good; so where is the pleasure in that? Unless one is an artistic genius, which I am definitely not - it takes lots and lots of practice, doing poor drawings before sufficient skill is attained in order to do it well - all that practice, doing something i am not happy with, seems not to be what I am looking to do in my retirement.

Thinking about it, I realised there is another sort of drawing. One which is not copying what I see in front of me, but being able to draw something that is not there - no analysis of angles, lengths and shapes, just draw what is in my mind.

Can one learn that sort of drawing? It seems to me that it needs to be more intuitive, to be able to draw something that possibly only vaguely looks like what I think I am drawing, but is, to my mind, nonetheless more creative, and more instinctively coming from within.

This got me thinking more and remembering that, a few years ago, I was sorting out old paperwork from around forty+ years ago, from when I was in my thirties, and finding a few small sketches. These were not drawings of something in front of me, but more 'doodles' which turned into pictures of subjects that seemed to evolve as I drew them - I could remember actually drawing them, which must say something as I don't remember much in detail from all those years ago!

I realised that these were examples of what I am more interested to explore, something that was coming from somewhere deeper in my subconscious, as they were not planned. As I remember it, I had just started doodling, and my brain obviously 'saw' something it recognised, which then led me to expand it, using what my mind saw as it developed - no planning or preconceived ideas, just an image evolving in front of my eyes, coming from within.

They were of no artistic value, but must have come from somewhere, so to me they are of great interest.

These are what I had found from over 40 years ago:


Now, all these years later, I find I can still 'doodle sketch' as I now refer to it. I find it interesting to just start drawing, with possibly a simple starting point, and just seeing where it takes me. Again, no great merit to these doodles - either in drawing skill, or artistic value - but I find them interesting, wondering where they are coming from. Clearly the subject matter comes from my experience and interest - often old buildings and countryside etc. but the fact that they simply emerge on the paper from the end of the pencil in my hand is fascinating to me. A million miles away from the analytical copying of what I see in front of me; but very much emerging from my subconscious - scary! (Not sure what it says about my subconscious mind though!)

Thinking a bit more, I realise I have used a similar type of drawing in my career as a designer - using drawing to explore and explain what is in my mind for a design - for whatever subject - the sketch may have been a rough way of 'thinking with a pencil', sketching around ideas to see if they would work, or, possibly to show someone else what I am thinking. I remember doing this with the builders who were doing some work on our cottage a few years ago - they seemed surprised I would just draw what I wanted them to build, whether a general point, or some detail. I realise now that this has always been my way of thinking when designing; many times little more than a scribble, and sometimes difficult for even me to see what it was when I come back to it later! But this must be an extension of my kind of drawing - perhaps I can expand on this for my wish to be creative in my retirement leisure.

There are various methods I would like to experiment with: the original pencil and paper, of course, but also using the computer with drawing/painting or design/illustration programmes. Hopefully I can try some of these in explaining what I observe or imagine on my Castle Street project, so combining the two main areas of interest I am following.

Here are a few examples of my recent attempts...
These are really more to do with exploring what the different media can do, or more accurately, what I can do with the different media - I like a loose type of image, so not much detail here - a learning process!
I have used traditional paper and pencil, but also drawing/painting application on the ipad using an apple pencil; and also a design illustration programme on the imac

These were both doodle sketches on the ipad, the first turned into a cat (scribble and smudge technique!). The second one started as an archway, and just grew a little from there. Both were done in 'Procreate' on the ipad with apple pencil.



These were conscious building subjects; the first very loosely based on my memory of an image I had seen in the past which had interested me. The second was again very loosely based on a pub in the village, but seemed to become transported to a different setting in my imagination. The third was an attempt at the simplest version of a cottage in the country! All three done in Procreate with apple pencil on ipad.




These were doodle sketches, really just experimenting with brushes and blending which turned into some sort of landscapes! Both with Procreate and apple pencil.



These were both of my home (front and rear) using traditional pencil on paper. The first is a caricature of the front (can you have a caricature of a building?) it was then imported into Procreate where I added a little colour and some extra line work. The rear view is just the initial pencil sketch, from memory rather than in view.



These were based on buildings and the brook in Castle street. The first was a caricature of the vet's building, really just to explore some very loose drawing techniques. Lower left is a more accurate view of the Clock tower on the Cross in the middle of the village. I was trying to keep it as loose as possible whilst still reasonably accurate. The third was a test of using a pencil mode with the apple pencil to see how it would compare with pencil on paper.
All done with Procreate on ipad.



These are of buildings in Castle street so needed to be accurate enough for recognition, although proportions were adjusted somewhat in the second! Both started with a pencil sketch on paper, and then imported into Procreate to add a little colour.




These were done in 'Affinity Designer', a vector graphics programme on the desktop imac. The first was in order to investigate and illustrate the change in one building in Castle street over the years, so needed to be fairly accurate. Whereas the second was a caricature, very loosely based on a house nearly opposite ours - really as an early experiment to begin to learn the programme!



Two of these were done as trials using a vector programme (Affinity Designer on desktop imac) - not too successful!
The first was a pencil sketch of a tiny cottage in Castle street, with colouring added using the vector app. I kept it loose but the colouring needs a lot more work (as does the drawing!)

The windows on the right were a more controlled use of the vector version, trying out various methods to produce sketchy windows (without initial pencil work) with the aim of getting the glass to look more like glass - a bit happier with those!

Having got a bit bogged down with those, I went back to a simple pencil doodlesketch on paper just to get freed up again - simple, small, loose cottage sketch, coming from within somewhere!








Not too happy with that, I prefer the pure pencil sketch - but I show where things go wrong to, hopefully, help me see where I need to try harder!

....




Well, that's it so far. As you can see it is early days yet, I am only just starting to get a little experience with the different techniques and media I choose.

....

Return to home page