Try to remember that drawing always produces an approximate version of the subject, even for a person highly skilled in drawing. Drawing is not photography. The person who is drawing consciously or subconsciously edits, emphasizes (or minimizes), or otherwise slightly changes various aspects of the subject. Students are often very critical of their work because it is not an exact rendition, but the subconscious choices made during drawing are part of the expressiveness of drawings.
Please note that in public places you will attract an audience of viewers who will very likely want to talk with you—not a good situation for maintaining an R-mode, wordless state of mind. On the other hand, if you would like to make some new friends, drawing in a public spot will work every time. For some reason, people who ordinarily would not approach a stranger do not hesitate to talk with someone who is drawing.
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A "real" perspective drawing What you'll need: • • • • • • •
Your drawing board Several sheets of drawing paper, in a stack for padding Your masking tape Your drawing pencils, sharpened, and your eraser Your graphite stick and several paper towels or paper napkins Your plastic Picture Plane and your felt-tip marker Your larger Viewfinder
Before you start:
Tape a stack of several sheets of drawing paper to your drawing board. Draw a format on your drawing paper and tone the paper within the format to a medium gray tone. Draw the crosshairs on the toned paper. 1. Choose your subject. Learning how to draw "in proportion" and "in perspective" are the two great challenges—the Waterloo, even—of most drawing students in art schools. You will want to prove to yourself that you can achieve this skill. Therefore, pick your subject with that objective in mind: Choose a view or a site that you think would be really hard to draw—one with lots of angles or a complicated ceiling or a long view down a hall. See the student drawing on page 153. The best way to choose a site is to walk around, using your Viewfinder to find a composition that pleases you—much in the same way as composing with a camera's viewfinder. Possible sites: A kitchen corner A hallway A view through an open doorway A corner of any room in your house A porch or balcony Any street corner where you can sit in your car or on a bench and draw • An entrance to any public building, inside or out • • • • • •
THE NKW DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN