Exercise 1.1: Pulses of Potential

Following on from my walk of the other day, today I set down to see what came to me. The goal here was to focus on temporariness, to loosen up. To not judge, and just let things happen in an unformed way.

My first instinct was to grab “art supplies” from my studio. To try to create using things which are within what I would normally consider to create with. Having done so, I asked myself if that really was being ‘loose’ and ‘unformed’.

Considering my walk from yesterday, I weighed using mud or fallen detritus in my back yard. My front yard is covered in cedar mulch which might make an interesting medium to work with.

I started with my kitchen, within which I have many jars of pulses and grains. They all have interesting earth tones, and different shapes, and that struck me as providing the right set of tools to start out with.

Bulgur was the first medium of choice, and finger-painting my brush. From there I moved to Quinoa and Red Thai rice. Later, I’d retreat to the garden with charcoal in hand and the rocks of my stepping stones as a surface.

Using my phone, I recorded various sections of the exercise though I tried to ignore the presence of the camera so that it wouldn’t influence me.

What did I observe?

I began by trying to draw in an additive way — pouring grain out from a jar to form an airplane. I was thinking of echoing the themes of my walk of the other day. Watching the video I can see how fast I became frustrated with that, and the randomness of the grain bouncing everywhere.

Nearly immediately I turn to subtractive drawing. Pushing away the grains to reveal the baking sheet beneath. I drew geometry, and attempted labyrinths. Another echo of the walk. In the video I switch to two finger drawing, which is something I never do with pencil or brush. Ambidextrous art creation, that is.

Although i didn’t do it, there was a section of the process where I considered retrieving finer tools to make the lines better. It is good that I didn’t, I think, given my later experience with charcoal (detailed below)

In the video, I also hear my breathing. It is distracting, but I can hear in it when I concentrate. I hold my breath when I’m thinking — a very bad habit — and I can hear the stops and starts as I go.

It is unsurprising to me that I moved to drawing the human figure, with fairly stereotypical male proportions. This year most of my practice is Zoom life drawing sessions and they are clearly influencing my comfort zone.

Abstraction and the Human Form

I started by tracing my arm and hand, but then moved on to sketch out a figure. As I progress, the forms become more abstract. I switch from purely subtractive drawing, to a mix of the two. One image looks like a potential thumbnail for a later drawing – I can almost see a narrative.