So it’s been one of those weeks – where work and jobs and family stuff has been manic. And, alas, not all of this has been creative! Naturally, as I write this it’s a glorious morning, which is both uplifting – B12, vitamin D, dopamine, all that stuff; but also makes getting my head down more difficult – fortunately I have this blog, so I give myself permission to spend some time reflecting… *ahem.
fig.1: Talisker 10 still life
While all the stuff has been going on I’ve been chipping away at my Escher/mental health piece, and I aim to deliver a post on its completion next week; but having less time means I’ve had to try and find ways to fit in my practice where I can.
fig.2: Commuters
So, faced with crowded trains, access to only a phone, and the positive impact of disrupting your practice, I’ve been messing about with my phone, my finger, and the capacity to draw using the Notes app [fig 1-4] (My phone’s memory is stuffed, adding in other better apps is not really an option till I upgrade). This is not quite Hockney and his i-pad, but y’know, thought I’d give it a go.
fig 3: Candle Jar still life
It’s made me think. The results have been interesting – challenging me to consider composition, economy of line, new ways of using colour, and accepting a looser approach – my finger is just not as precise as a pen would be! The colour in notes is through highlighters – so you can blend-ish, but it’s tricky – kind of a mix between a marker and watercolour. The upshot is it makes me think about colour as absence, blocks and pattern, and I use black for tonal variations – I usually keep black away from colours!
fig.4: Commuter - man on train
Drawing like this opens up new approaches to figures – considering how they take up space, and present attitude; and for the still-lives, how the objects relate to their surrounds in what is a pretty bland room. I can’t cut through the image or erase mistakes in the same way, so often the choice is between accepting a mistake or starting again; a constraint that makes you look that much harder. The results are rougher of course, but there is an energy as a result, and I wonder…
I come to these qualities with fresh eyes, because the medium is not familiar. I will continue, and get the jobs done, I will complete the Escher piece – I’m still very excited by it! But I will also try to build on these experiments – considering these images and how the approach will work for me.