So recently I’ve been doing a lot of basic drawing drills. Just practice stuff, like working on visual measuring, getting the correct angles of things for perspective and the like. I started watching some videos at Chris Oatley’s site, the Oatley Academy, where I’m a subscriber to his magic box series. I was feeling like nothing seemed to be falling into place for me, so I begin just drawing some simple objects: things in my studio; then took it outside for a break where I picked some jalapeños and tomatoes from my garden and then started drawing those. Sketch, move it, sketch it again.
Where else can I apply this?
Eventually, I started watching some of the basics videos at ctrlPaint. I went straight to the ones on basic sketching and I’m glad I did. While I’ve been drawing for most of my life, (and that’s a pretty long time now…), sometimes going back to basics can be good for you just to reinforce some of those concepts. It’s easy to develop lazy habits. Doing some rote exercises makes you realize where you’ve let things slip.
It makes me think about where else I’ve let things slip, created some bad habits and just how easy it is to set myself back on the right path, but how difficult it is not to slip back. Some eight months ago, I started a new habit in the morning, where I spend the first half hour to hour of my day doing some automatic meditative drawing. I break out a black marker and just draw whatever comes out. Not “things” but shapes. It’s really improved my morning, making me more focused for the day. At first it was a real chore, but now, I can’t imagine not doing it. So I’m thinking its time that I introduce another new habit or two. One is getting back to a regular yoga practice, and the other is more regularly drawing from life. It’s like practising scales for a musician. After you’ve been doing it for as long as I have, you get the false (and somewhat arrogant) notion that you don’t need to practice..till things seem to go to hell and you can’t draw anything well for a day or two. It’s been amazing how just going back to basics brings back into focus what’s important.