drawings

Very soon I will be offering a weekend Drawn to Print online art course. I have been examining and thinking about how drawing feeds all of my printmaking processes.

I actually started printmaking because I did not like to draw. Printmaking plates, stencils and tools can give life to a simple drawing. It can make all the hard work of drawing live on and be bigger than the original sketch.

Making printing plates from your drawings is great if drawing feels like a struggle or burden to you. You can spend some time drawing and then a lot more time using that printing plate to make your artwork.

I challenge you:

1. Expand you idea of what a good drawing is
2. Look to some Master artists for study and inspiration
3. Draw even just a little bit each day
4. Consider accepting the idea that 75% will be practice drawings and you might like 25%

Here are some of the masters who I admire for their drawings, line quality and expressive marks. Do google image search of each name for quick visual of their style.

• Alice Neel
• Ellsworth Kelly
• Paul Klee
• Robert Motherwell
• Henri Matisse
• Kathe Kollowitz

Here is a great article about the importance of drawing. The Art Supply Store – Written By: Laura Spencer

It is wonderful when you get to a place in your art making that you realize that your unique differences are what make your art so special and powerful.

Love your wiggly lines and warped perspectives! They will help others to see what you see.

You can try to avoid drawing and there are lots of tools that you can buy to make art with out drawing: stencils, stamps and coloring books.

But if you have the urge to make your own unique art, to express your voice in the world, then the tug of drawing is there. I know because I am not natural lover of drawing. I judge myself too harshly and I often resist the process.

Now I know that:

• drawing is an essential tool.
• the more I draw the more I like what I draw
• drawing can be a scribble (google Cy Twombly drawings)
• kids drawing are moving because they are raw and real

Try this:

1. Get 10 sheets of copy paper
2. Stand up, wiggle, breathe and stretch
3. Arm out stretched and soft pencil in hand, scribble with abandon
4. Just keep making marks
5. Get a new sheet when you feel like it

How did it go?

• Did it feel fun? Foolish?
• Were you judging or allowing?
• Did you trust yourself?
• Do you feel looser, freer?

I love found marks and tools.

Drawing for me is work, not really pure joy. But the longer I am an artist the more I realize that drawing opens up options.

I think one thought that holds me back is the idea that I have to draw the “teacher’s” way, or realistically, or something other than what I do.

Funny, why don’t I give myself more space to play, experiment and learn to draw freely with more confidence and less judgment.

Lately, I have been doing some quick line drawings of teapots. Strong expressive line drawings are perfect for photo emulsion screen printing.

Different types of drawing are best for different screen printing methods:

• Great shapes with good negative space would be good for paper stencils
• Strong bold line drawings would be good for the screen filler and drawing fluid method
• Dark and delicate details would be good for photo emulsion screen printing method.

Check out upcoming online printmaking workshops.

Line is often the first element of design that is taught in a basic art course. I love line whether it is simple and clear like the flower drawings of Ellsworth Kelly or the figure drawing by Matisse. (Do a google image search of the underlined terms and see if you agree)

Yet, I am also moved by the scribbles of Cy Twombly or some of the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock or the bold black brush strokes of Franz Kline.

• We all use line everyday in writing.
• We are familiar with it.
• Very few materials are needed
• Line can direct the viewer
• It can guide you through a piece
• It can connect elements of the piece

How do you feel about line? Love it? Or leave it?

Have you ever:

• done gesture drawings of a live model?
• contour drawings of every day objects?
• made thick bold expressive marks with black paint?

Notice how you already use line in your art making. See if there is a technique or approach or style that you would like to play with.

Enjoy!