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What’s a drawing (or a painting) but a set of marks?

Any picture, from a Rembrandt in a gallery, to an illustration in a magazine, can be viewed in two different ways - as the picture the artist meant us to see, and as a series of lines, or daubs of paint, or splodges of ink. The artist’s role is basically to utilise the human’s propensity to see meaning in form, in order to share a vision. But it’s always interesting to consciously look at the physical actions involved in creating that illusion.

I suppose I’m talking about moments like when you stand in front of a Lucian Freud in a gallery and look not just at a nude, but at a hardened stack of oil paint that stands out an inch from the canvas.

Artists like Ronald Searle became famous for their work which, although representing a subject quite adequately, could also be viewed as a barely-controlled series of spilt inks.

It’s worth considering your mark-making. Some conscious thought will make a difference to the way you draw.

Different subjects lend themselves to different approaches. For example, a series of light, feathery marks might be very suitable for depicting a cat’s fur or long grass. This’d probably be a picture best seen from close-up, say, a small illustration in a book. The details would be lost from any further away.

If you want to produce a bold picture, say, representing the light and shade on a big building, you’d be better with thick, confident lines, and big areas of plain black contrasting with areas of white.

Some media create the style of mark for you – a dip-pen and ink on a bumpy page, for example, makes for an unpredictable line with some gaps in it. Paint or inks applied onto a slightly wet page will billow out, producing idiosyncratic effects. One of the best steps forward you can make is to work with this kind of effect, not against it.

Which comes first, the subject or the medium you draw it in? It doesn’t really matter, but in the most successful drawings the two are often compatible.

Today’s task: Pick a pen, or paint, or pastel stick, or anything else you fancy (last week I asked you to go for something you were familiar with. This time that’s it might be nice to choose something new to you). Any paper will do, but again, give a little thought about how your chosen pen and paper will work together.

Now take some time to test out your media, with no aim other than to see what effects they produce.

• Press hard
• Press soft
• Draw a circle
• Draw a line
• Do some crosshatching
• Cover a large area
• Cover a small area
• Maybe introduce a second pen or crayon, see how the two work (or don’t work) together
• Think about what might be a good subject to draw, now that you know what the pen does. **
• Draw it!
• Post it!

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*Style - I have a whole post brewing on that, one that is more questions than answers.

** Some examples: Watercolours are great for clouds and sky, or for flower petals where one colour runs into another. Fine-tipped pens are good for line drawings with lots of detail, like an urban landscape or a detailed picture of an interior. Thick, single colours, like felt tips or crayons, make for great statement pieces using simple shapes.